Carrie Masiello

About

Carrie Masiello is the W. Maurice Ewing Professor of Biogeochemistry in the Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Department at Rice University. She is also a Professor of Chemistry and Biosciences and serves as the Director of the Sustainability Institute. Her research focuses on developing new tools to understand the processes that control carbon, nitrogen, and water fluxes through the Earth system. Her theoretical work includes creating new methods to measure the physical and chemical properties of the Earth, as well as applying synthetic biology to Earth system questions. Her applied research utilizes these tools to investigate greenhouse gas removal processes, with particular emphasis on water, energy, agriculture, and marine processes. Additionally, her group collaborates with the Baker Institute for Public Policy on carbon market development. Dr. Masiello holds a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics from Earlham College, an M.S. in Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Earth System Science from the University of California, Irvine. She has been recognized as a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and received the Hamill Innovation Award from Rice University.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Organic chemistry
• Economics
• Agronomy
• Natural resource economics
• Pharmacology

Selected publications

• Biochar in climate change mitigation

  Nature Geoscience · 2021 · 825 citations

  DOI

• Translating New Synthetic Biology Advances for Biosensing Into the Earth and Environmental Sciences

  Frontiers in Microbiology · 2021 · 105 citations

  The rapid diversification of synthetic biology tools holds promise in making some classically hard-to-solve environmental problems tractable. Here we review longstanding problems in the Earth and environmental sciences that could be addressed using engineered microbes as micron-scale sensors (biosensors). Biosensors can offer new perspectives on open questions, including understanding microbial behaviors in heterogeneous matrices like soils, sediments, and wastewater systems, tracking cryptic el…

  DOI

• Soil organic matter attenuates the efficacy of flavonoid-based plant-microbe communication

  Science Advances · 2020 · 97 citations

  Plant-microbe interactions are mediated by signaling compounds that control vital plant functions, such as nodulation, defense, and allelopathy. While interruption of signaling is typically attributed to biological processes, potential abiotic controls remain less studied. Here, we show that higher organic carbon (OC) contents in soils repress flavonoid signals by up to 70%. Furthermore, the magnitude of repression is differentially dependent on the chemical structure of the signaling molecule,…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rapid Simulation of Decade-Scale Charcoal Aging in Soil: Changes in Physicochemical Properties and Their Environmental Implications

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2022-12-16 · 38 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  In situ aging can change biochar properties, influencing their ecosystem benefits or risks over time. However, there is a lack of field verification of laboratory methods that attempt simulation of long-term natural aging of biochar. We exploited a decade-scale natural charcoal (a proxy for biochar) aging event to determine which lab-aging methods best mimicked field aging. We oxidized charcoal by ultraviolet A radiation (UVA), H2O2, or monochloramine (NH2Cl), and compared it to 10-year field-ag…

  PublisherDOI

• The Apparent Respiratory Quotient of Soils and Tree Stems and the Processes That Control It

  Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences · 2022-02-21 · 31 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The CO 2 /O 2 fluxes ratio (apparent respiration quotient [ARQ]) measured in soils and plants contains valuable information about the respiratory‐substrate stoichiometry and biotic and abiotic non‐respiratory processes. We investigated ARQ variability by measurements in soil pore space air, and in headspace air from incubations of bulk‐soil and tree stem tissues (both fresh and 24‐hr stored tissues) in 10 measurement campaigns over 15 months in a Mediterranean oak forest. Mean (range) A…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• The Effect of Charcoal on Soil Hydrologic Properties Under Natural and Elevated Concentrations

  NSF · $270k · 2010–2015

• The Effects of Land Use Change on the Oxidative Ratio of the Terrestrial Biosphere

  NSF · $400k · 2006–2011

• Early Career: Acquisition of Shared, Basic Biogeochemistry Lab Facilities at Rice University

  NSF · $100k · 2010–2014

Frequent coauthors

• William C. Hockaday

  Baylor University

  67 shared

• Jonathan J. Silberg

  Rice University

  26 shared

• M. E. Gallagher

  25 shared

• Xiaodong Gao

  22 shared

• Ilenne Del Valle

  17 shared

• T. R. Filley

  17 shared

• Brenda B. Bowen

  University of Utah

  16 shared

• Brandon Dugan

  Colorado School of Mines

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Earth System Science

  University of California Irvine

  1999

• M.S., Chemistry

  University of California Irvine

  1996

• M.S., Environmental Science and Engineering

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1993

• B.A., Math, Physics

  Earlham College

  1991

Awards & honors

• Fellow, Geological Society of America (2017)
• Hamill Innovation Award, Rice University/Hamill Foundation (…
• American Fellow, AAUW (2002-2003)

Similar researchers at Rice University

• Francis Albaredeh-125
• Rajdeep Dasguptah-58
• Andrea Isellah-57