Data Collection (year 3)

Mike Piehler | UNC-Chapel Hill

Mike Piehler is a professor at the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, director of the UNC Institute for the Environment and holds joint faculty appointments in the Department of Marine Sciences, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program at UNC.

Piehler’s research focuses on material transport and processing and microbial communities at the coastal land-water interface. His research seeks to understand the effects of natural and anthropogenic stressors on the ecology and biogeochemistry of shallow water systems throughout the freshwater marine continuum. Study systems have included marshes, oyster reefs, shallow lakes, streams and rivers throughout the Atlantic and gulf coasts of the U.S. He has published more than 85 papers and advises governments, non-government organizations and industry.

Brent McKee | UNC-Chapel Hill

The overarching focus of my research is on land-ocean interactions and global change. I am interested in the role of Major Rivers (Amazon, Changjiang, Huanghe, Orinoco, Danube, Columbia, Mississippi) in global biogeochemical cycles and global change. Rivers are the primary interface between continental and oceanic environments and play a critical role in global cycles such as carbon.