John A. Higgins

About

Professor John A. Higgins is a faculty member in the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University, where he leads the Higgins Research Laboratory. His primary research interest is the evolution of the carbon cycle and the global climate system over Earth history. He focuses on processes that control the chemical composition of seawater and how these processes have changed on geologic timescales. Additionally, he studies how the chemistry of carbonate sediments is affected by post-depositional processes such as early diagenetic recrystallization, dolomitization, and hydrothermal alteration. Professor Higgins employs a variety of tools in his research, including numerical models of chemical and isotopic biogeochemical cycles, analysis of traditional stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon, and the application of new isotope systems such as magnesium, calcium, and potassium. His work contributes to understanding the complex interactions within Earth's climate and geochemical systems, shedding light on the history of Earth's climate and biogeochemical processes.

Research topics

• Geology
• Chemistry
• Paleontology
• Geochemistry
• Oceanography
• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental science
• Ecology
• Materials science
• Earth science

Selected publications

• A lithium-isotope perspective on the evolution of carbon and silicon cycles

  Nature · 2021 · 152 citations

  DOI

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

  Nature Communications · 2021 · 100 citations

  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

• Low-temperature oceanic crust alteration and the isotopic budgets of potassium and magnesium in seawater

  Earth and Planetary Science Letters · 2020 · 98 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Snowballs in Africa: sectioning a long-lived Neoproterozoic carbonate platform and its bathyal foreslope (NW Namibia)

  Earth-Science Reviews · 2021 · 75 citations

  PublisherDOI

• The origin of carbonate mud and implications for global climate

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022 · 54 citations

  Carbonate mud represents one of the most important geochemical archives for reconstructing ancient climatic, environmental, and evolutionary change from the rock record. Mud also represents a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Yet, there remains no consensus about how and where carbonate mud is formed. Here, we present stable isotope and trace-element data from carbonate constituents in the Bahamas, including ooids, corals, foraminifera, and algae. We use geochemical fingerprinting to demons…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Window into the World with 40,000-year Glacial Cycles from Climate Records in Million Year-old Ice from the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area

  NSF · $576k · 2015–2020

• CAREER: What sets the CO2 thermostat? Insights from the global geochemical cycles of Ca, Mg, and K

  NSF · $819k · 2017–2022

• Collaborative Research: Snapshots of Early and Mid-Pleistocene Climate and Atmospheric Composition from the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area

  NSF · $1.1M · 2018–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Daniel P. Schrag

  44 shared

• Clara L. Blättler

  27 shared

• Anne‐Sofie C. Ahm

  22 shared

• Adam C. Maloof

  Princeton University

  19 shared

• D. Santiago Ramos

  18 shared

• Michael L. Bender

  BASF (Germany)

  17 shared

• Daniel A. Stolper

  University of California, Berkeley

  17 shared

• Francis A. Macdonald

  17 shared

Labs

• The Higgins Research LaboratoryPI

Awards & honors

• UCAR Next Generation Science Fellow (2024)

Similar researchers at Princeton University

• Daniel M. Sigmanh-106
• Michael Oppenheimerh-103
• Bess B. Wardh-81