I am interested in understanding how phytoplankton regulate the energy flow in marine ecosystems and the elemental flow in biogeochemical cycles. And particularly I am interested in carbon export in the sunlit surface ocean.

I received my Ph.D. in 2013 from Duke University. My dissertation research focused on Prochlorococcus, the smallest but most abundant phytoplankton in the ocean. I established a method to measure the genotype specific growth rates using ribosomal RNA content, and related their growth rates to different environmental variables in the field. Now as a postdoctoral researcher at Duke, I work on the Southern Ocean system and study how microbial community (both autotrophs and heterotrophs) structure and interactions influence carbon export measured by the underway O2/Ar method. My current research is at the nexus of high-throughput molecular biology and high-resolution underway biogeochemistry. Combining these two fields provides me with unique tools to explore the mechanisms of carbon export. And these findings could benefit other fields such as food web, ecosystem conservation and biogeochemical modeling.

Email: yajuan.lin@duke.edu   Tel: 919-6818889

Peer-reviewed publications

Larkin, A., Blinebry, S., Howes, C., Lin, Y., Loftus, S., Schmaus, C., Zinser, E., and Johnson, Z. (2016). Niche partitioning and biogeography of high light adapted Prochlorococcus across taxonomic ranks in the North Pacific. ISME, doi: 10.1038/ismej.2015.244

Chandler, J., Lin, Y., Gainer, P., Post, A., Johnson, Z., and Erik, Z. (2016) Variable but persistent coexistence of Prochlorococcus ecotypes along temperature gradients in the ocean’s surface mixed layer. Environmental Microbiology Reports, doi: 10.1111/1758-2229.12378.

Ribalet, F., Swalwell, J., Clayton, S., Jiménez, V., Sudek, S., Lin, Y., Johnson, Z., Worden, A., and Armbrust, E. V. (2015). Light-driven synchrony of Prochlorococcus growth and mortality in the subtropical Pacific gyre. PNAS, 112(26), 8008-8012.

Jiao, N., Luo, T., Zhang, R., Yan, W., Lin, Y., Johnson, Z. I., Tian, J., Yuan, D., Yang, Q., Sun, J., Hu, D., and Wang, P. (2014). Presence of Prochlorococcus in the aphotic waters of the western Pacific Ocean. Biogeosciences, 11, 2391-2400.

Lin Y., Gazsi K., Lance V. P., Larkin A., Chandler, J., Zinser E. R., and Johnson Z. I. (2013) In situ activity of a dominant Prochlorococcus ecotype (eHL-II) from rRNA content and cell size. Environmental Microbiology. 15(10), 2736-2747.

Hunt, D. E.*, Lin, Y.*, Church, M. J., Karl, D. M., Tringe, S. G., Izzo, L. K., & Johnson, Z. I. (2013). Relationship between Abundance and Specific Activity of Bacterioplankton in Open Ocean Surface Waters. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 79(1), 177-184.  * co-first authors

Bittar, T. B., Lin, Y., Sassano, L. R., Wheeler, B. J., Brown, S. L., Cochlan, W. P., and Johnson, Z. I. (2013). Carbon Allocation under Light and Nitrogen Resource Gradients in Two Model Marine Phytoplankton. Journal of Phycology. 49(3), 523-535.

Johnson, Z. I., & Lin, Y. (2009). Prochlorococcus: Approved for export. PNAS, 106(26), 10400-10401.

Wang, D., & Lin, Y. (2007). A new species of Metacladophyton from the Late Devonian of China. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 168(7), 1067-1084.

Contact

Earth and Ocean Sciences, Duke University, 415 Chapel Dr., Durham, 27708

Office: Environmental Hall #5112