About

Biography

Carlos Rocha (@OneBreathDoc) is the Associate Professor in Environmental Change at the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin. After graduating in Technological Chemistry in 1991, he earned a PhD in Marine Sciences (Chemistry and Biogeochemistry) in 1997, both from the University of Lisbon.

Carlos discovered that rapid cooling of warm sandflats by the rising tide accelerates the transfer of chemicals across the sand-water interface; this mechanism, called the convective turnover pump, is part of why coastal sands are sites of intense carbon and nutrient cycling and critical components of the earth system: beaches function as kidneys for the sea.

His contribution to marine biogeochemistry was recognized by two national science awards (1999 & 2000) and a nomination for the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Lindemann Award in 2001. Before joining Trinity, Carlos was a lecturer in biogeochemistry and the deputy director of the Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIMA) at the University of Algarve, Portugal.

Currently, he teaches biogeochemistry at under- and postgraduate level and leads the Biogeochemistry Research Group at Trinity College. 

Expertise

We study how chemicals transported by water flow through the living earth and how they behave in transit to understand the plasticity of aquatic ecosystems to environmental and climate change. The outcomes of this research reveal the magnitudes, rates, and pathways to pollution of surface waters, the pace of natural mitigation of contaminants in sedimentary environments and support better management of natural ecosystems.

Infrastructure

Resources in our group include a suite of state-of-the-art equipment and the operational know-how to use it in support of biogeochemical research, including radon (²²²Rn) and radium (^{223, 224, 228 and 226}Ra) quantification in aquatic systems (RAD-7 Radon monitors, RaDeCC), as well as all the resources needed for field sampling (CTD, GPS with echo-sounding, coring and water sampling devices, multi-parameter probes, etc). Carlos also leads the Trinity Environmental Tracer and Environmental Forensics laboratory, equipped with Picarro^TM cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) analysers for stable isotope analysis of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen.

Impacts Arising from Research

Our research has provided new insights as to how we view the coastal interface between groundwater and the sea, providing a fresh understanding of the movement of chemicals, including contaminants, opening new areas of research and creating new research and commercial opportunities spanning disciplines from genetics to engineering.