Yuehan Lu

Biography

BS, Geology/Geochemistry, Zhejiang University, China, July 2000 MS, Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang University, China, July 2003 PhD, Oceanography/ Marine Geochemistry, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, December 2008 NOAA Summer Fellow, NOAA Great Lakes Enviromental Research Laboratory, 2006 summer, 2007 summer Post-Doctoral, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, College of William and Mary, 2008-2010

Research Interest

1) Biogeochemical cycling of natural organic matter in contemporary and paleo-ecosystems, with a particular focus on understanding interactions between human activities and natural cycles of organic matter; 2) Human impacts on water quality, with current projects including: a. organic and inorganic nutrient exports from agricultural watersheds b. fingerprinting organic matter in streams to determine the impacts of septic effluents on surface waters c. impacts of coal mining on groundwater quality in China 3) Water quality-quantity connectivity, such as watershed exports of dissolved organic matter and inorganic nutrients during storm events; 4) Terrestrial-aquatic linkages through organic matter; 5) Biomarker records of mass extinctions recorded in Late Devonian black shales. Among the most common tools include: 1) biomarkers, i.e., source-specific and resistant organic molecules that can record environmental and ecological processes over geological time scales, 2) stable and radiogenic isotopes (13C, 14C, 15N), 3) optical properties of organic matter (three dimensional fluorescence, absorption); and 4) ultra-high resolution FTICR-MS analysis.