Contact details
Email abby.smith@otago.ac.nz
Academic qualifications
BA (Geology, Biology) Colby College
SM (Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DPhil (Earth Sciences) University of Waikato
Research interests
Bryozoans are important carbonate producers
Marine bryozoans are the most important carbonate sediment producers on shelves in the Southern Hemisphere, and largely unstudied. My students and I work on taxonomy and systematics, identification, growth and production, ecology, and geochemistry of New Zealand's bryozoans. I am an active member (and currently Treasurer) of the International Bryozoology Association.
Geochemical signals in skeletons
Variations in isotopic composition and mineralogy of skeletal carbonate may contain information about age, environment, and productivity. Our research team investigates geochemical signals in carbonate (both modern and fossil), and how they can be used to understand calcification, age and growth in temperate organisms, particularly bryozoans, as well as how they might reflect longer-term changes in climate and water chemistry.
Temperate carbonate sediments
Cool water reefs and temperate carbonate sediments differ from their tropical counterparts, requiring new ideas about budgets, production, destruction, preservation and lithification. My students and I investigate these processes in a range of environments, from the coast out to the shelf and beyond. The Otago and Southland continental shelves are unusual in their cool-water carbonate reefs and mixing of carbonate and terrestrial sediments. We have studies underway off Otago Peninsula, in Paterson Inlet, through Foveaux Strait, and in Doubtful Sound.
Ocean acidification on the temperate shelf
Ocean acidification and its effect on calcification is emerging as the major global climate challenge. Rapid anthropogenic production of CO2 has driven the carbonate chemistry of the sea, causing lowered pH in surface waters and affecting calcification in some marine organisms. We study the temperate carbonate budget – production, geochemistry, dissolution, and accumulation in cool temperate environments. Temperate shelf carbonate sediments, which blanket southern shelves of New Zealand and Australia, are key biological reservoirs, possibly ameliorating the effects of acidification in shelf depths.