Richard Keil

About

Richard Keil is a professor at the College of the Environment, where he is interested in applying organic geochemistry to pressing environmental issues, especially climate change. His research focuses on the fate of organic matter in aquatic environments and the causes and consequences of oxygen minimum zones throughout the world. In addition to his research, he initiated SoundCitizen in 2008, a citizen science project that involves Puget Sound residents sampling water from various sites to analyze links between urban settings and aquatic systems, documenting pollutants and emerging contaminants. He holds the Lowell A. and Frankie L. Wakefield Endowed Professorship of Ocean and Fishery Sciences.

Research topics

• Oceanography
• Geology
• Chemistry
• Environmental science
• Biology
• Ecology
• Environmental chemistry
• Geography
• Atmospheric sciences
• Inorganic chemistry

Selected publications

• Microbial sulfate reduction and organic sulfur formation in sinking marine particles

  Science · 2021 · 128 citations

  Climate change is driving an expansion of marine oxygen-deficient zones, which may alter the global cycles of carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and trace metals. Currently, however, we lack a full mechanistic understanding of how oxygen deficiency affects organic carbon cycling and burial. Here, we show that cryptic microbial sulfate reduction occurs in sinking particles from the eastern tropical North Pacific oxygen-deficient zone and that some microbially produced sulfide reacts rapidly to form organi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cyanobacteria and cyanophage contributions to carbon and nitrogen cycling in an oligotrophic oxygen-deficient zone

  The ISME Journal · 2019-06-27 · 93 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Up to half of marine N losses occur in oxygen-deficient zones (ODZs). Organic matter flux from productive surface waters is considered a primary control on N2 production. Here we investigate the offshore Eastern Tropical North Pacific (ETNP) where a secondary chlorophyll a maximum resides within the ODZ. Rates of primary production and carbon export from the mixed layer and productivity in the primary chlorophyll a maximum were consistent with oligotrophic waters. However, sediment trap…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rapid, Concurrent Formation of Organic Sulfur and Iron Sulfides During Experimental Sulfurization of Sinking Marine Particles

  Global Biogeochemical Cycles · 2021-09-01 · 33 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Organic matter (OM) sulfurization can enhance the preservation and sequestration of carbon in anoxic sediments, and it has been observed in sinking marine particles from marine O 2 ‐deficient zones. The magnitude of this effect on carbon burial remains unclear, however, because the transformations that occur when sinking particles encounter sulfidic conditions remain undescribed. Here, we briefly expose sinking marine particles from the eastern tropical North Pacific O 2 ‐deficient zone…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Archaeal Sources of Intact Membrane Lipid Biomarkers in the Oxygen Deficient Zone of the Eastern Tropical South Pacific

  Frontiers in Microbiology · 2019-04-11 · 32 citations

  articleOpen access

  Archaea are ubiquitous in the modern ocean where they are involved in the carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles. However, the majority of Archaea remain uncultured. Archaeal specific membrane intact polar lipids (IPLs) are biomarkers of the presence and abundance of living cells. They comprise archaeol and glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) attached to various polar headgroups. However, little is known of the IPLs of uncultured marine Archaea, complicating their use as biomar…

  PublisherDOI

• Slow Particle Remineralization, Rather Than Suppressed Disaggregation, Drives Efficient Flux Transfer Through the Eastern Tropical North Pacific Oxygen Deficient Zone

  Global Biogeochemical Cycles · 2021 · 28 citations

  Abstract Models and observations suggest that particle flux attenuation is lower across the mesopelagic zone of anoxic environments compared to oxic environments. Flux attenuation is controlled by microbial metabolism as well as aggregation and disaggregation by zooplankton, all of which shape the relative abundance of differently sized particles. Observing and modeling particle spectra can provide information about the contributions of these processes. We measured particle size spectrum profile…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: COSEE-Ocean Learning Communities - Connecting Communities around the World's Ocean

  NSF · $618k · 2010–2014

• Collaborative Research: Development of a low-cost PHOtosynthesis, Respiration, and Carbon balance Yielding System (PHORCYS)

  NSF · $235k · 2012–2016

• Impact of Suboxia on Sinking Particles: Non-Redfield Diagenesis and its Potential Role in C fluxes and N Cycling

  NSF · $297k · 2007–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Allan H. Devol

  University of Washington

  33 shared

• David L. Kirchman

  27 shared

• Nicholas Ward

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  26 shared

• Jeffrey E. Richey

  University of Washington

  22 shared

• Jacquelyn Neibauer

  College of Charleston

  19 shared

• John I. Hedges

  18 shared

• Stephen A. Macko

  16 shared

• Kathleen C. Ruttenberg

  University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

  16 shared

Labs

• OceanographyPI

Similar researchers at University of Washington

• Deborah Kelleyh-60
• Julian Sachsh-48
• Stephen Riserh-48