Anne Giblin

Senior Scientist and Director, The Ecosystems Center

Anne Giblin Headshot
Contact Information
Education
Ph.D., Boston University Marine Program, Woods Hole, MA, 1982, Ecology
B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 1975, Biology
MBL Affiliation
Ecosystems Center
Research Area
Ecology
Ecosystems
Global Change
Marine Biology

My major research interest has been on the cycling of elements in the environment, especially the biogeochemistry of nitrogen, sulfur, iron, and phosphorus. Much of my work has been focused in soils and sediments where element cycling takes place under different conditions of oxidation and reduction. A major theme of my research has been to examine how sediment processes either ameliorate or augment the effects of anthropogenic inputs of elements to ecosystems. For example, I have worked on topics such as the effects of acid deposition on the sulfur cycle of lakes, the mobility of trace metals in salt marsh sediments, the controls on the availability of phosphorus in tundra soils (Arctic LTER), and the controls of denitrification in marine and lake sediments. Much of my current research is examining how increased nitrogen inputs, hydrologic disturbances, and sea-level rise are altering nitrogen and carbon cycling in estuaries in the Plum Island marsh system (PIE LTER) north of Boston.  I am also investigating the controls on nitrogen removal pathways in places ranging from the New England continental shelf to arctic lakes on the north slope of Alaska.

News and Research Highlights
Anne Giblin works with
Selected Publications

Giblin, A.E., C. Tobias, B-K Song, N. Weston, G. T. Banta, V. H. Rivera-Monroy. ( 2013). The importance of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) in the nitrogen cycle of coastal ecosystems. Oceanography  26: 124-131.

Forbrich, I. and A.E. Giblin.  2015. Marsh-atmosphere CO2 exchange in a New England salt marsh.  J. of Geophysical Research 120:1825-1838.

Hardison, A. K., C.K. Algar, A.E. Giblin, J. Rich.  2015. Influence of organic carbon and nitrate loading on partitioning between dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) and N2 production. Geochemica Cosmochemica Acta 164:146-160. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2015.04.049.

Brin, L.D., A.E. Giblin, J.J. Rich.  2016. Similar temperature responses suggest future climate warming will not alter partitioning between denitrification and anammox in temperate marine sediments.  Global Change Biology. Doi: 10.1111/gcb.13370.

Daniels, W., J.M. Russell, A. E. Giblin; J. M. Welker, E. S. Klein; Yongsong Huang. (2017) Leaf wax hydrogen isotope fractionation from synthesis to sedimentation in the Arctic tundra, North Slope. Geochemica Cosmochima Acta 213:216-236.

Forbrich, I., A.E. Giblin, C.S. Hopkinson.  (2018) Constraining carbon budgets from a salt marsh using five years of eddy co-variance measurements and long-term estimates of carbon burial from sediment cores. J. Geophysical Research 123:867-878.

Liu, Xueyan, Koba, K. , L.A. Koyama , S. E. Hobbie. M.S. Weiss , Y. Inagaki , G.R. Shaver , A.E. Giblin , S. Hobara , K.J Nadelhoffer , M. Sommerkorn , E.B. Rastetter , G.W. Kling , J.A. Laundre , Y. Yano , A. Makabe , M. Yano , C. Liu (2018) Nitrate is an important nitrogen source for Arctic tundra plants.  Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 115:3398-3403.

Bulseco, A., Giblin, A.E., Tucker, J., Murphy, A., Sanderman, J., Hiller-Bittrolff, K., Bowen, J. 2019. Nitrate addition stimulates microbial decomposition of organic matter in salt marsh sediments. Global Change Biology 25:32224-3241

Longo, W. M. . Yongsong Huang, J.M. Russell, C. Morrill, W.C. Daniels, A.E. Giblin, and J. Crowthe. 2020  Insolation and greenhouse gases drove Holocene winter and spring warming in Arctic Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews 242:106438

Bowen, J.L, A.E. Giblin, A.E. Murphy, A.N. Bulseco, L.A. Deegan, D.S. Johnson, J.A. Nelson, T.J. Mozdzer, H.L. Sullivan.  2020.  Not All Nitrogen Is Created Equal: Differential Effects of Nitrate and Ammonium Enrichment in Coastal Wetlands. Bioscience 70:1108-1119. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa140

Giblin, A.E., R.W. Fulweiler, and C. S. Hopkinson.  2021. The role of marshes in coastal nutrient dynamics.  In Marshes, Function, Dynamics, and Stresses, pp 113-154. Eds: D.M. FitzGerald and Z.J Hughes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 

Upreti, K. V.H. Rivera-Monroy, K. Maiti, A.E. Giblin, E. Castaneda-Moya. 2022. Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) is marginal relative to denitrification in emerging-eroding wetlands in a subtropical oligohaline and eutrophic coastal delta.  Science of the Total Environment 819:152942

Bulseco, Ashley, N., A. E. Murphy, A. E. Giblin, J. Tucker, J. Sanderman, J. L. Bowen.  2024. Marsh sediments chronically exposed to nitrogen enrichment contain degraded organic matter that is less vulnerable to decomposition via nitrate reduction. Science of the Total Environment 915:16981

Bowen, J. L., A. C. Spivak, A. E. Bernhard, R. W. Fulweiler, and A. E. Giblin. 2024. Coastal marsh nitrogen cycling: Where land meets sea. Trends in Microbiology 33:565-576.