Members of the D’Hondt lab work at the intersection of geology, biology and chemistry.
Much of our present work is focused on life beneath the seafloor. We are determining the composition, structure and metabolic activities of subseafloor sedimentary ecosystems. We investigate the processes that nourish these ecosystems. We assess the extent to which environmental properties limit the existence of life. We are testing the relationship of subseafloor ecosystems to the surface world, including their dependence on the surface world and their effects on the chemistry of the ocean and atmosphere.
Our past research includes studies of (1) the causes and consequences of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, (2) the interdependence of biogeochemical recovery and evolutionary recovery after mass extinction, (3) the geographic distribution of marine planktonic diversity, (4) photosymbiosis in extinct organisms, (5) the biological role of alkenones and causes of non-thermal variation in their saturation (a common paleotemperature proxy), (6) the structure of the ocean-climate system in the “greenhouse” late Cretaceous (67 million years ago and 83 million years ago), (7) the evolution of the ocean-climate system in the “icehouse” Pleistocene (0-3 million years ago), and (8) major impact events of the last 65 million years.
Contact
Steven D’Hondt
Graduate School of Oceanography
University of Rhode Island
Narragansett Bay Campus
South Ferry Road
Narragansett, RI 02882
