The Fichot Lab at Boston University

Our research is motivated by the urgent need to understand, predict and act upon the effects of human- and climate-driven perturbations on aquatic environments. Specifically, we seek to model, quantify and understand processes regulating carbon biogeochemistry, water quality and sediment dynamics across the land-ocean continuum and assess their vulnerability to climate variability and human-driven changes. We develop cutting-edge techniques combining aquatic optics and environmental chemistry, and integrate them with experimental results and remote sensing into sophisticated data-informed modeling frameworks. Implementation of the models provides a mechanistic, quantitative, and holistic representation of the complex biogeochemical and geophysical interactions of the land and ocean, with the objective of understanding how they will respond to anthropogenic perturbations.

Our research typically combines field work, laboratory analyses and experiments, remote-sensing data analysis and modeling. Currently, we can divide our research into five core research themes:

1. Aquatic photochemistry
2. UV-visible imaging spectroscopy of inland and coastal waters
3. Cycling of terrigenous organic carbon along the land-ocean continuum
4. Suspended sediment dynamics at the land-water interface
5. Seagrass habitat suitability