Paul G. Falkowski Professor II Rutgers University Depts. of Geological Sciences & Marine & Coastal Sciences Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences School of Env & Biol Sciences 71 Dudley Road New Brunswick. NJ 08903 (732) 932-6555. Ext. 370 FAX - 4083 falko@marine.rutgers.edu

Biogeochemical cycles, photosynthesis, biological oceanography, molecular biology, biochemistry and biophysics, physiological adaptation, plant physiology, evolution, mathematical modeling, symbiosis

Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Laboratory

The Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology (EBME) Laboratory at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey is an interdisciplinary, multi-user research facility designed to explore the application of biophysical and molecular biological techniques to a wide number of environmental processes in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The EBME program bridges physical and biological sciences in the context of understanding how biological systems function and evolve in the environment.

By its nature, the EBME program fosters collaboration between basic science faculty and students with engineering faculty and students in an academic environment.

The program emphasizes research, undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate training, and continual development of novel methodologies and instrumentation.

Over the past two decades, more than 100 researchers, post-doctoral candidates, graduate, undergraduate and high school students received training in photobiology, biochemistry and biophysics in the EBME program, and major advances were made in scientific understanding of photobiology in natural ecosystems.

Selected Publications

Cermeño P, Falkowski PG. (2009) Controls on diatom biogeography in the ocean. Science. 325(5947):1539-41.

Falkowski PG, Goodman RM. (2009) Future energy institutes. Science. 325(5941):655.

Johnson MD, Völker J, Moeller HV, Laws E, Breslauer KJ, Falkowski PG. (2009) Universal constant for heat production in protists. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106(16):6696-9.

Richier S, Kerros ME, de Vargas C, Haramaty L, Falkowski PG, Gattuso JP. (2009) Light-dependent transcriptional regulation of genes of biogeochemical interest in the diploid and haploid life cycle stages of Emiliania huxleyi. Appl Environ Microbiol. 75(10):3366-9.

Vardi A, Thamatrakoln K, Bidle KD, Falkowski PG. (2008) Diatom genomes come of age. Genome Biol. 9(12):245. Review.

Cermeño P, Dutkiewicz S, Harris RP, Follows M, Schofield O, Falkowski PG. (2008) The role of nutricline depth in regulating the ocean carbon cycle. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. D105(51):20344-9.

Falkowski PG, Isozaki Y. (2008) Geology. The story of O2. Science. 322(5901):540-2.

Falkowski PG, Fenchel T, Delong EF. (2008) The microbial engines that drive Earth's biogeochemical cycles. Science. 320(5879):1034-9. Review.

Falkowski PG, Godfrey LV. (2008) Review. Electrons, life and the evolution of Earth's oxygen cycle. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 363(1504):2705-16.

Shi T, Falkowski PG. (2008) Genome evolution in cyanobacteria: the stable core and the variable shell. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 105(7):2510-5.

Buesseler KO, Doney SC, Karl DM, Boyd PW, Caldeira K, Chai F, Coale KH, de Baar HJ, Falkowski PG, Johnson KS, Lampitt RS, Michaels AF, Naqvi SW, Smetacek V, Takeda S, Watson AJ. (2008) Environment. Ocean iron fertilization--moving forward in a sea of uncertainty. Science. 319(5860):162.

Helman Y, Natale F, Sherrell RM, Lavigne M, Starovoytov V, Gorbunov MY, Falkowski PG. (2008)
Extracellular matrix production and calcium carbonate precipitation by coral cells in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 105(1):54-8.

Shi T, Sun Y, Falkowski PG. (2007) Effects of iron limitation on the expression of metabolic genes in the marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum IMS101. Environ Microbiol. 9(12):2945-56.

Litchman E, Klausmeier CA, Schofield OM, Falkowski PG. (2007) The role of functional traits and trade-offs in structuring phytoplankton communities: scaling from cellular to ecosystem level. Ecol Lett. 10(12):1170-81.

Falkowski PG, Oliver MJ. (2007) Mix and match: how climate selects phytoplankton. Nat Rev Microbiol. 5(10):813-9. Review. Erratum in: Nat Rev Microbiol. (2007)5(12):966.

Bidle KD, Lee S, Marchant DR, Falkowski PG. (2007) Fossil genes and microbes in the oldest ice on earth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 104(33):13455-60.

McGillicuddy DJ Jr, Anderson LA, Bates NR, Bibby T, Buesseler KO, Carlson CA, Davis CS, Ewart C, Falkowski PG, Goldthwait SA, Hansell DA, Jenkins WJ, Johnson R, Kosnyrev VK, Ledwell JR, Li QP, Siegel DA, Steinberg DK. (2007) Eddy/wind interactions stimulate extraordinary mid-ocean plankton blooms. Science. 316(5827):1021-6.

Behrenfeld MJ, O'Malley RT, Siegel DA, McClain CR, Sarmiento JL, Feldman GC, Milligan AJ, Falkowski PG, Letelier RM, Boss ES. (2006) Climate-driven trends in contemporary ocean productivity. Nature. 444(7120):752-5.

Wolfe-Simon F, Starovoytov V, Reinfelder JR, Schofield O, Falkowski PG. (2006) Localization and role of manganese superoxide dismutase in a marine diatom. Plant Physiol. 142(4):1701-9.

Falkowski PG. (2006) Evolution. Tracing oxygen's imprint on earth's metabolic evolution.
Science. 311(5768):1724-5.

Jiang L, Schofield OM, Falkowski PG. (2005) Adaptive evolution of phytoplankton cell size.
Am Nat. 166(4):496-505.

Falkowski PG, Katz ME, Milligan AJ, Fennel K, Cramer BS, Aubry MP, Berner RA, Novacek MJ, Zapol WM. (2005) The rise of oxygen over the past 205 million years and the evolution of large placental mammals. Science. 309(5744):2202-4.

Shi T, Bibby TS, Jiang L, Irwin AJ, Falkowski PG. (2005) Protein interactions limit the rate of evolution of photosynthetic genes in cyanobacteria. Mol Biol Evol. 22(11):2179-89.

Finkel ZV, Katz ME, Wright JD, Schofield OM, Falkowski PG. (2005) Climatically driven macroevolutionary patterns in the size of marine diatoms over the Cenozoic. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 102(25):8927-32.

Chen YB, Durnford DG, Koblizek M, Falkowski PG. (2004) Plastid regulation of Lhcb1 transcription in the chlorophyte alga Dunaliella tertiolecta. Plant Physiol. 136(3):3737-50.

Falkowski PG, Davis CS. (2004)Natural proportions. Nature. 431(7005):131.

Tchernov D, Gorbunov MY, de Vargas C, Narayan Yadav S, Milligan AJ, Haggblom M, Falkowski PG. (2004) Membrane lipids of symbiotic algae are diagnostic of sensitivity to thermal bleaching in corals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 101(37):13531-5.

Lesser MP, Mazel CH, Gorbunov MY, Falkowski PG.(2004) Discovery of symbiotic nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in corals. Science. 305(5686):997-1000.

Bidle KD, Falkowski PG. (2004) Cell death in planktonic, photosynthetic microorganisms.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2(8):643-55. Review.

Falkowski PG, Katz ME, Knoll AH, Quigg A, Raven JA, Schofield O, Taylor FJ. (2004) The evolution of modern eukaryotic phytoplankton. Science. 305(5682):354-60. Review.

Sun Y, Castner EW Jr, Lawson CL, Falkowski PG. (2004) Biophysical characterization of natural and mutant fluorescent proteins cloned from zooxanthellate corals. FEBS Lett. 570(1-3):175-83.

Falkowski PG, de Vargas C. (2004) Genomics and evolution. Shotgun sequencing in the sea: a blast from the past? Science. 304(5667):58-60.