Adina Paytan

About

Dr. Adina Paytan is a Professor in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with affiliations in the Institute of Marine Sciences and Ocean Sciences. Her research interests encompass biogeochemistry, chemical oceanography, paleoceanography, paleoclimatology, and environmental chemistry. Dr. Paytan's work focuses on understanding the chemical processes and historical changes in marine environments, contributing to knowledge about oceanic and atmospheric interactions over time. She leads a research lab that includes graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and undergraduate students, fostering a collaborative environment for advancing studies in marine and earth sciences.

Research topics

• Oceanography
• Environmental chemistry
• Geology
• Environmental science
• Chemistry
• Earth science
• Ecology
• Geochemistry
• Materials science
• Political Science

Selected publications

• Global Ocean Sediment Composition and Burial Flux in the Deep Sea

  Global Biogeochemical Cycles · 2021 · 138 citations

  Abstract Quantitative knowledge about the burial of sedimentary components at the seafloor has wide‐ranging implications in ocean science, from global climate to continental weathering. The use of 230 Th‐normalized fluxes reduces uncertainties that many prior studies faced by accounting for the effects of sediment redistribution by bottom currents and minimizing the impact of age model uncertainty. Here we employ a recently compiled global data set of 230 Th‐normalized fluxes with an updated dat…

  DOI

• Bioactive Trace Metals and Their Isotopes as Paleoproductivity Proxies: An Assessment Using GEOTRACES‐Era Data

  Global Biogeochemical Cycles · 2021 · 111 citations

  Abstract Phytoplankton productivity and export sequester climatically significant quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide as particulate organic carbon through a suite of processes termed the biological pump. Constraining how the biological pump operated in the past is important for understanding past atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and Earth's climate history. However, reconstructing the history of the biological pump requires proxies. Due to their intimate association with biologica…

  DOI

• Toward an Improved Understanding of the Marine Barium Cycle and the Application of Marine Barite as a Paleoproductivity Proxy

  Minerals · 2020 · 107 citations

  Marine barite (BaSO4) is a relatively ubiquitous, though minor, component of ocean sediments. Modern studies of the accumulation of barite in ocean sediments have demonstrated a robust correlation between barite accumulation rates and carbon export to the deep ocean. This correlation has been used to develop quantitative relationships between barite accumulation rates and export production and is used to reconstruct export production in the geologic past, particularly during times of dynamic cha…

  DOI

• Groundwater discharge impacts marine isotope budgets of Li, Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba

  Nature Communications · 2021 · 100 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Groundwater-derived solute fluxes to the ocean have long been assumed static and subordinate to riverine fluxes, if not neglected entirely, in marine isotope budgets. Here we present concentration and isotope data for Li, Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba in coastal groundwaters to constrain the importance of groundwater discharge in mediating the magnitude and isotopic composition of terrestrially derived solute fluxes to the ocean. Data were extrapolated globally using three independent volumetric estimates…

  DOI

• A 35-million-year record of seawater stable Sr isotopes reveals a fluctuating global carbon cycle

  Science · 2021 · 70 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Sr data as reflecting changes in the mineralogy and burial location of biogenic carbonates.

  DOI

Recent grants

• U.S. Mexico Cooperative Research: Methane Fluxes and Cycling in Mangroves Ecosystems

  NSF · $11k · 2007–2008

• Resolving seawater stable (88Sr/86Sr) strontium isotope variations and their implications for the global strontium cycle

  NSF · $335k · 2013–2018

• Collaborative Research: Calibration, Validation, and Application of Barium Isotopes in Marine Barite as a Tracer of the Marine Carbon Cycle

  NSF · $93k · 2018–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Elizabeth M. Griffith

  The Ohio State University

  59 shared

• Carol Kendall

  Analytical Services

  57 shared

• M. B. Young

  56 shared

• Karen McLaughlin

  Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

  55 shared

• Katherine R. M. Mackey

  University of California, Irvine

  52 shared

• J. H. Street

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  43 shared

• Karen L. Knee

  American University

  39 shared

• Ellen Thomas

  Planetary Science Institute

  39 shared

Labs

• Paytan LabPI

Awards & honors

• Aliya Receives ARCS Fellowship (2026)
• Adina Elected to National Academy of Sciences (2026)
• Aliya Awarded Keeley Coastal Scholarship (2026)
• Leah Receives Myers Trust Funding (2026)
• Leah Receives GCA Award in Coastal Wetlands Studies (2026)