- Dr. Brian Popp
- University of Hawai'i at Manoa
About the time I began studies as an undergraduate, my brother Otto got me interested in diving and in 1976 I became a PADI basic SCUBA Diver. The region surrounding Detroit, Michigan, where I grew up, has many lakes and quarries but the water is cold, the visibility low and underwater scenery uninspiring. However, during the first semester of my junior year I took a “mini course” titled Coral Reefs in the Geology Department, which introduced me to the beauty of coral reefs. This course also helped convinced me to 1) switch my major to Geology and 2) SCUBA dive on a coral reef. That next winter, I took a camping/snorkeling/diving trip to the Florida Keys during Spring Break where I developed a love of the tropical ocean and decided that I would somehow, someday combine my work with tropical SCUBA diving. Little did I know that many decades later I would return to the Florida Keys to live and work in AQUARIUS, the world’s only underwater habitat!
It was not until I joined the faculty of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii in 1990 that I really had the opportunity to begin research on tropical coral reef ecosystems. Although I had an opportunity to study tropical reefs while attending graduate school in the Midwest, my research was focused on the chemistry of 300 million year old shells. My first chance to combine teaching and diving came when one of my graduate school mentors, Philip Sandberg, asked me to assist teaching a course on the geology and ecology of South Florida. Shortly after arriving in Hawaii, I began a study of organic matter degradation in coral reef sediments with Drs. Frank Sansone and Gordon Tribble. We compared sediment organic matter diagenesis in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii with that on Conch Reef. Working with Frank introduced me to AQUARIUS and to many new ways of examining organic matter cycling including developing novel analytical techniques. Working with Gordon introduced me to a whole new philosophy of SCUBA diving (and to the Zen of spearfishing). At Hawaii, I have had the great privilege of working with an incredibly gifted and diverse group of students and colleagues. As a result of these collaborations, I have been co-recipient of The Geochemical Society's Best Paper Award in Organic Geochemistry in 1996 and I was elected Fellow of the Geochemical Society and European Association for Geochemistry in 2006. My research interests range from the isotope biogeochemistry of algae and the origins of trace greenhouse gases in seawater to the isotope ecology of equatorial Pacific yellowfin tuna. If you are interested in joining my research group as an undergraduate, graduate student or a postdoctoral fellow, I encourage you to look at my home page and check out some of my publications.
Our project at Aquarius developed from exciting new discoveries concerning the possible importance of marine sponges as sources or sinks of nitrogen to coral reef ecosystems. Our hypotheses concerning the role of sponges in nitrogen cycling in coral reef ecosystems could not be tested without the Aquarius facility and its fantastic staff of professional divers and engineers. In the absence of special saturation diving capabilities we would be unable to efficiently work for the long time periods required for our experiments. I am delighted to have the opportunity to live under water in AQUARIUS and to conduct research that may ultimately influence the management decisions that will protect the coral reef environment that have influenced my life.
Brian has B.S. (Michigan 1978), M.S. (Illinois 1981) and Ph.D. (Illinois 1986) degrees in geology and postdoctoral experience in biogeochemistry (John M. Hayes, Indiana 1985-89). He joined the UH faculty in 1990 and is currently a professor of Geology and Geophysics and the director of the Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratories. He is the author or co-author of more than 65 peer-reviewed research publications and has been chief scientist or co-chief scientist on more than a dozen oceanographic expeditions.
