James McClelland

Senior Scientist

James McClelland
Contact Information
Education
Ph.D., Biology, Boston University, 1998
B.S., Zoology, University of Washington, 1991
MBL Affiliation
Ecosystems Center
Research Area
Ecosystems
Global Change

My research interests include 1) effects of human activity on water, carbon, and nutrient fluxes from land to sea, and 2) responses of coastal ecosystems to changes in land-derived inputs.

Environmental changes as a consequence of human activity, including changes in land use, land cover, and global warming, provide the context for much of my work. These changes are having a profound influence on the transport of water and water-borne constituents from land to sea. In turn, changes in the fluxes of water, carbon, and nutrients to estuaries and the coastal ocean are altering fundamental ecosystem properties such as primary production and food web structure.

Changes in land-sea fluxes have broader implications as well, including alteration of the global carbon budget and potential impacts of freshwater inputs on global ocean circulation and climate. To identify and explore changes in land-sea coupling I use a wide variety of approaches including analysis of historic data sets, field studies of biogeochemical cycling and constituent transport, and modeling. In my field studies, I frequently take advantage of stable isotopes and other natural markers to track the fate of water, organic matter, and nutrients from land through estuarine and marine systems.

News and Research Highlights
Selected Publications

Behnke, M.I., J.W. McClelland, S.E. Tank, A.M. Kellerman, R.M. Holmes, N. Haghipour, T.I. Eglinton, P.A. Raymond, A. Suslova, A.V. Zhulidov, T. Gurtovaya, N. Zomov, S. Zimov, E.A. Mutter, E. Amos, and R.G.M. Spencer. 2021. Pan-Arctic riverine dissolved organic matter: Synchronous molecular stability, shifting sources and subsidies.聽Global Biogeochemical Cycles聽35:e2020GB006871, doi:10.1029/2020GB006871.

Bristol, E.M., C.T. Connolly, T.D. Lorenson, B.M. Richmond, A.G. Ilgen, R.C. Chones, D.L. Bull, M. Kanevskiy, G. Iwahana, B.M. Jones, and J.W. McClelland. 2021. Geochemistry of coastal permafrost and erosion-driven organic matter fluxes to the Beaufort Sea near Drew Point, Alaska.聽Frontiers in Earth Science聽8:598933, doi:10.3389/feart.2020.598933.

Connolly, C.T., B.C. Crump, K.H. Dunton, and J.W. McClelland.聽 2021.聽 Seasonality of dissolved organic matter in lagoon ecosystems along the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast.聽聽Limnology and Oceanography聽66:4299-4313, doi:10.1002/lno.11962.

Rawlins, M.A., Connolly, C.T., and J.W. McClelland.聽 2021.聽 Modeling terrestrial dissolved organic carbon loading to western Arctic rivers.聽聽Journal of Geophysical Sciences 鈥 Biogeosciences聽126, e2021JG006420, doi:10.1029/2021JG006420.聽

Xu, X., H. Wei, G. Barker, K. Holt, S. Julian, T. Light, S. Melton, A. Salamanca, K.B. Moffett, J.W. McClelland, and A.K. Hardison.聽 2021.聽 Tidal freshwater zones as hotspots for biogeochemical cycling: Sediment organic matter decomposition in the lower reaches of two south Texas rivers.聽聽Estuaries and Coasts聽44:722-733, doi:10.1007/s12237-020-00791-4.聽

Connolly, C.T., M.B. Cardenas, G.A. Burkart, R.G.M. Spencer, and J.W. McClelland. 2020. Groundwater as a major source of dissolved organic matter to Arctic coastal waters.聽Nature Communications聽11, 1479, doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15250-8.

Jones, A.E., A.K. Hardison, B.R. Hodges, J.W. McClelland, and K.B. Moffett. 2020. Defining a riverine tidal freshwater zone and its spatiotemporal dynamics.聽Water Resources Research聽56, e2019WR026619, doi:10.1029/2019WR026619.

Tank, S.E., J.E. Vonk, M.A. Walvoord, J.W. McClelland, I. Laurion, and B.W. Abbott.聽 2020.聽 Landscape matters: Predicting the biogeochemical effects of permafrost thaw on aquatic networks with a state factor approach,聽Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, doi:10.1002/ppp.2057.聽

Glibert, P.M., J.J. Middelburg, J.W. McClelland, and J. Vander Zanden.聽 2019.聽 Stable isotope tracers: Enriching our perspectives and questions on sources, fates, rates and pathways of major elements in aquatic systems.聽聽Limnology and Oceanography聽64:950-981, doi:10.1002/lno.11087.

Wild, B., A. Andersson, L. Br枚der, J. Vonk, G. Hugelius, J.W. McClelland, W. Song, P.A. Raymond, and 脰. Gustafsson.聽 2019.聽Rivers across the Siberian Arctic unearth the patterns of carbon release from thawing permafrost.聽聽Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi:10.1073/pnas.1811797116.聽