Colleen Durkin

Colleen Durkin’s passion for research, intellectual fearlessness and creativity have led to her making fundamental contributions to our understanding of the biological processes that result in the production and export of carbon and other nutrients in the open ocean. Her work is characterized by innovative techniques and interdisciplinary approaches, combining molecular methods and transcriptomics with detailed shipboard imaging of fragile samples, to provide a biological lens into the sources of carbon in the deep ocean.

With her dissertation, Durkin established the role of genetic variation among diatom species in driving the silicon cycle, showing that diatom community composition differs depending on the availability of iron, with a major effect on silicon precipitation. She also identified the functional diversification of silicon transporter genes among major clades of diatoms, which is responsible for the community response to iron availability. In subsequent work, she and her collaborators have quantified the important, and previously unappreciated, contribution of small particles to the carbon flux in the mesopelagic zone, by innovative and detailed visual analysis of the samples from sediment traps. The importance of small particles increased with depth in these samples, contrary to previous assumptions. As in much of Durkin’s work, this study was enhanced by innovative methods of visual presentation of the data, increasing the clarity and impact of the findings.

Her dedication to shipboard analysis and identification of the biological origins of the particulate matter providing nutrients to the deep ocean makes her a model for field biology.

For more information, visit www.mbari.org/person/colleen-durkin/.