Steven D'Hondt

Steven D’Hondt is an American geomicrobiologist who studies microbial communities living beneath the seafloor. He is a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.

Career

D’Hondt earned his BS in Geology at Stanford University in 1984 and his PhD in Geological and Geophysical Sciences at Princeton University in 1990. He became an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island in 1989, where he remains today.

D’Hondt’s research program investigates marine microorganisms in subseafloor sediments, with projects looking at the global distribution of cells, the energetics of subseafloor communities, ancient sedimentary DNA, and the acidification of estuaries due to human impact.[1] In a 2009 study, his group examined sediments from below the South Pacific Gyre, an area of ocean between Australia and South America where little organic matter falls to the seafloor.[2][3][4] They discovered very low numbers of microbial cells and the presence of oxygen several meters down. Sediments with greater numbers of microbes lack oxygen at these depths. In a 2015 study, D’Hondt led a research group that demonstrated that oxygen penetrates the entire sediment column in as much as one third of the world’s oceans.[5][6][7] This oxygen likely affects microbial metabolism in these sediments and may be transported into the underlying mantle.

D’Hondt led the Subsurface Biospheres team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute from 2001 to 2006.[8] He also has been involved with the international scientific drilling community. He was co-chief scientist of the Ocean Drilling Program Leg 201 and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 329, the first and second ocean drilling expeditions to focus primarily on life beneath the seafloor.[8][9] D’Hondt is a member of the Deep Life Scientific Steering Committee for the Deep Carbon Observatory and a member of the American Geophysical Union, Geochemical Society and Society for Applied Microbiology.[8][10]

Personal life

D'Hondt is the husband of Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea.[11]

Selected publications

D'Hondt has 75 publications with over 6,000 citations and an h-index of 42. Among the more highly cited are:[12]

  • D'Hondt, S.; Jørgensen, Bo Barker; Miller', D Jay; Batzke, Anja; Blake, Ruth; Cragg, Barry A; Cypionka, Heribert; Dickens, Gerald R; Ferdelman, Timothy; Hinrichs, Kai-Uwe; Holm, Nils G; Mitterer, Richard; Spivack, Arthur; Wang, Guizhi; Bekins, Barbara; Engelen, Bert; Ford, Kathryn; Gettemy, Glen; Rutherford, Scott D; Sass, Henrik; Skilbeck, C Gregory; Aiello, Ivano W; Guèrin, Gilles; House, Christopher H; Inagaki, Fumio; Meister, Patrick; Naehr, Thomas; Niitsuma, Sachiko; Parkes, R John; Schippers, Axel; Smith, David C; Teske, Andreas; Wiegel, Juergen; Padilla, Christian Naranjo; Acosta', Juana Luz Solis (24 December 2004). "Distributions of Microbial Activities in Deep Subseafloor Sediments". Science. 306 (5705): 2216–2221. doi:10.1126/science.1101155. PMID 15618510.
  • —; Rutherford, Scott; Spivack, Arthur J. (15 March 2002). "Metabolic Activity of Subsurface Life in Deep-Sea Sediments". Science. 295 (5562): 2067–2070. doi:10.1126/science.1064878. PMID 11896277.
  • —; Donaghay, Percy; Zachos, James C.; Luttenberg, Danielle; Lindinger, Matthias (9 October 1998). "Organic Carbon Fluxes and Ecological Recovery from the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction". Science. 282 (5387): 276–279. doi:10.1126/science.282.5387.276. PMID 9765149.

See also

References
  1. "Current Research". The D'Hondt lab. University of Rhode Island. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  2. Associated Press (22 June 2009). "Anybody home? Little response in Pacific gyre". NBC News. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  3. D'Hondt, Steven; Spivack, Arthur J.; Pockalny, Robert; Ferdelman, Timothy G.; Fischer, Jan P.; Kallmeyer, Jens; Abrams, Lewis J.; Smith, David C.; Graham, Dennis (2009-07-14). "Subseafloor sedimentary life in the South Pacific Gyre". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (28): 11651–11656. doi:10.1073/pnas.0811793106. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2702254. PMID 19561304.
  4. Wright, Matthew E.; Otomo, Miyuki (18 August 2011). "Exploring An Ocean Desert: Scientists Study Life in the Remote South Pacific Gyre". Consortium for Ocean Leadership. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  5. D’Hondt, Steven; Inagaki, Fumio; Zarikian, Carlos Alvarez; Abrams, Lewis J.; Dubois, Nathalie; Engelhardt, Tim; Evans, Helen; Ferdelman, Timothy; Gribsholt, Britta (April 2015). "Presence of oxygen and aerobic communities from sea floor to basement in deep-sea sediments". Nature Geoscience. 8 (4): 299–304. doi:10.1038/ngeo2387. ISSN 1752-0894.
  6. Boston, Michelle (24 April 2017). "Researchers investigate the ocean's deep biosphere". Phys.org.
  7. "No limit to life in deep sediment of ocean's "deadest" region | NSF - National Science Foundation". News Release. National Science Foundation. 15 March 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  8. "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). AGU. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  9. "2011-2012 Distinguished Lecturer - Steven D'Hondt - U.S. Science Support Program". U.S. Science Support Program. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  10. "DCO Scientific Steering Committees". Deep Carbon Observatory. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  11. "About Secretary Of State Nellie M. Gorbea". Rhode Island Department of State. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  12. "Steven D'Hondt -". Google Scholar Citations. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
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