Recommending Firefox
The
overarching question in our research group is how fast microbially-mediated
geochemical reactions, or
geomicrobial reactions, proceed. Although microbes
have remained outside the traditional realm of geology, we
now realize that microorganisms provide a
versatile catalyst to almost all low-temperature geochemical processes,
from mineral precipitation and dissolution
to groundwater contamination. Hence our research question is critical for
solving many theoretical and applied
questions, from groundwater remediation to global environmental changes.
Our approaches
combine model development, laboratory and field experiments, and numerical
simulation. Model
development synthesizes our current understanding;
numerical simulation implements and applies the models;
the experiments are designed to test our
model and simulation results. By combining the different approaches, we
hope to
provide a better understanding of environmental chemistry.
Graduate students and postdocs:
Steven
McAllister (Ph.D. student), and Scott Maguffin (Ph.D. student);
Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz (postdoc), and Rongzhong Ye (postdoc).
Alumni:
Ashley Daigle
(2010). Thesis: Investigating groundwater arsenic contamination using aquifer
push-pull tests.
Jonathan Giska (2010). Thesis: Characterizing methanogens in the
sediments of
Selected publications:
Jin, Q., and C. M. Bethke, 2002. Kinetics of electron transfer through
the respiratory chain. Biophysical Journal. 83: 1797–1808.
Jin, Q.,
and C. M. Bethke, 2003. A new rate law describing microbial respiration. Applied
and Environmental Microbiology. 69:
2340–2348.
Jin, Q.,
and C. M. Bethke, 2005. Predicting the rate of microbial respiration in
geochemical environments. Geochimica et
Cosmochimica Acta. 69:1133–1143.
Jin, Q.
2007. Control of hydrogen partial pressures on the rates of syntrophic
microbial metabolism: A kinetic model for butyrate
fermentation. Geobiology.
5:35-49.
Jin, Q.,
and C. M. Bethke, 2007. The thermodynamics and kinetics of microbial
metabolism. American Journal of Science.
307:643-677.
Jin,
Q. and C. M. Bethke, 2009. Cellular energy conservation and the rate of
bacterial sulfate reduction. Geology.
37:1027-1030.