Chemical Oceanographer
Prof Tom Trull
Professor Trull’s expertise is in chemical oceanography and marine biogeochemistry, in particular the use of chemical and isotopic measurements to trace material flows through microbial foodwebs.
He obtained a PhD from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography in 1989, and after postdoctoral work at the University of Paris joined the Antarctic CRC in 1993.
Key achievements include:
1. demonstration that artificial and natural iron fertilization can enhance particulate carbon flux to the ocean interior, but that this capacity is limited and the risks insufficiently understood to merit largescale fertilization, and for this reason I have contributed to the establishment of the International Maritime Organization moratorium.
2. contributions to understanding the status and progress of ocean acidification in Antarctic shelf waters.
social & academic profiles
Current Research
Professor Tom Trull co-leads the Carbon and Ecosystems Program (R2) and the Carbon Uptake and Chemical Change Project (R2.1).
He leads the Integrated Marine Observing System Southern Ocean Time Series Facility to deploy automated moorings for the sustained study of climate and carbon cycling, which I initiated in 1997.
Professor Trull also works to expand the use of biogeochemical and bio-optical sensors on Argo floats to measure ocean ecosystem productivity, including collaborations with the US SOCCOM and French SOCLIM programs.
He co-supervises PhD students Alice Della Penna and Emmanuel Laurenceau and Honours student Rob Newham.
Selected Publications
Boyd P.W., Watson A.J., Law C.S., Abraham E., Trull T., Murdoch R., Bakker D.C.E., Bowie A.R. etal., 2000. Phytoplankton bloom upon mesoscale iron fertilisation of polar Southern Ocean waters. Nature, 407, 695-702.
Trull, T., Rintoul, S.R., Hadfield, M. & Abraham, E.R. (2001) Circulation and seasonal evolution of polar waters south of Australia: Implications for iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean. Deep-Sea Research Part Ii-Topical Studies in Oceanography, 48, 2439-2466.
Trull, T.W. & Armand, L. (2001) Insights into Southern Ocean carbon export from the delta C-13 of particles and dissolved inorganic carbon during the SOIREE iron release experiment. Deep-Sea Research Part Ii-Topical Studies in Oceanography, 48, 2655-2680..
Trull, T.W., Bray, S.G., Manganini, S.J., Honjo, S. & Francois, R. (2001) Moored sediment trap measurements of carbon export in the Subantarctic and Polar Frontal Zones of the Southern Ocean, south of Australia. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 106, 31489-31509.
Blain, S., Quéguiner, B., Armand, L., Belviso, S., Bombled, B., Bopp, L., …Trull, T.W….et al. (2007). Impacts of natural iron fertilisation on the Southern Ocean. Nature, 446, 1070-1074, doi:1010.1038/nature05700.
Location: Hobart, TasmaniaAuthorised by the CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre October 2019.
The ACE CRC was established and supported under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program.
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