Dr. Roy Price

Hydrothermal Arsenic off Milos -
An expedition to the shallow-sea hydrothermal vents off the Greek island of Milos headed by two MARUM fellows, Roy Price and Solveig Bühring, devoted towards the investigation on how geochemical conditions shape microbial communities, revealed extremely elevated arsenic concentrations in the vent fluids. This is the highest concentration of arsenic reported for any marine hydrothermal vent to date.



Current Research interests and other experience..

• Biogeochemistry of hydrothermal fluids, precipitates, sediments, seawater and biota surrounding marine shallow-water hydrothermal vents, particularly toxic metals and metalloids.
• Bioavailability, bioaccumulation, and biotransformation of toxins often enriched in these systems (As, Sb, Se, Cr). Similar methods can be applied to coastal environments and organisms affected by anthropogenic pollution.

My current research utilizes a systematic, multidiciplinary approach – with emphasis on collaboration with biologists, coastal ecologists, and microbiologists - to determining the biogeochemical cycling of not only major elements, but also potentially toxic elements and trace metal(oids) in coastal marine ecosystems. I am particularly interested in coastal marine environments influenced by marine shallow-water hydrothermal venting. These systems are often characterized by steep physicochemical gradients in temperature, pH, HCO3-, and an array of biologically toxic elements such as As, Sb, Se, Cr, Co, Pb, Cd, Ag, Cu, Tl, Zn, Hg, and S, as well as possible limiting nutrients such as Si and Fe. These shallow systems are extremely useful as they are much easier to reach compared to their deep-water counterpart, and because they can be used as analogs to coastal anthropogenic pollution.

As a MARUM postdoctoral fellow at the Universität Bremen, my research proposal “Metalloid abundance and speciation in vent fluid, bottom water, and sediment pore water from the shallow hydrothermal system of Santorini, Greece” allows me to pursue the aforementioned goals. With the first visit to not only Santorini, but also Milos Island, Greece and Panarea, Italy, I have expanded the original proposal dramatically. I am now in close collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, also in Bremen, to determine the microbial diversity and metabolism at these sites. Several seagrass samples were also collected, and are currently being analyzed for bioaccumulation and biotransformation of toxins from Santorini and Milos.

Current Projects:

• Metalloid abundance and speciation in vent fluid, bottom water, and
  sediment pore water from the shallow hydrothermal system of Santorini,
  Greece
• As, Sb, and Se abundance and speciation in hydrothermal fluids from the PACManus back-arc hydrothermal system
• Organoarsenic speciation in deep-water hydrothermal vent organisms
• Microbial utilization of arsenic in the marine shallow-water hydrothermal system of Milos, Greece
• “Carbon fixation pathways and microbial metabolism based on arsenic in the marine shallow-water hydrothermal system of Palaeochori Bay, Milos Island, Greece”

Future Research

I would like to continue researching bioavailability, bioaccumulation, biotransformation, and biogeochemical cycling of potentially toxic elements and trace metals in coastal ecosystems. However, I am extremely interested in combining molecular microbial genetics and understanding how toxic metal speciation affects microbial community structure and diversity at shallow vents. I am also interested in applying Se- and Sb-isotope systems as new tracers for understanding the nature of element cycling and ore forming processes in ocean floor environments. Newly developed techniques using high resolution MC ICP-MS for the first time provide the unique opportunity of applying Se and Sb isotopes to many areas of earth and ocean sciences, and I believe the potential of these non-traditional isotopic systems has yet to be realized.

I incorporate underwater photography and SCUBA diving in my research. My certifications include: German Forschungstaucher certification, IANTD Dry Suit Diver, NAUI Nitrox, SSI Photography, SSI Marine Identification, SSI Advanced Open Water, DAN Oxygen Provider, NAUI First Aid/CPR Provider, and PADI Open Water Diver.

Past Experience

I have conducted research projects related to the shallow, sub-marine hydrothermal systems in Papua New Guinea; Dominica, Lesser Antilles; Baja California Sur, Mexico; and Akutan Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. However, my research interests are very broad ranging, from the role of biogeochemistry on the origin and evolution of life, to environmental studies focusing on toxic elements being introduced into groundwater aquifers. Other research projects include arsenic in arc lavas and its behavior across a hot subduction zone in the northern cascades, antimony isotope systematics in hydrothermal systems, and the distribution and exact location of arsenic in recent carbonate sediments of the Florida Keys and Bahamas. In addition, I have done extensive microbial research at Dr. Jan Amend’s Microbial Geochemistry Lab, at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where I worked as a visiting scientist for Nov. 05 through Feb. 06. My objectives were to learn basic microbiology lab techniques, and to culture and isolate arsenic metabolizing microbes collected from the shallow marine hydrothermal vents off Ambitle Island, PNG. In July 2006, I was a participant on a Woods Hole Research Cruise to eastern Manus Basin (MGLN06 cruise, M. Tivey, CS), where I performed shipboard As and Sb speciation of hydrothermal fluids. In 2005, I worked for 1 month at Dr. Dirk Wallschlager’s Environmental Chemistry lab at Trent University, Ontario, Canada, while collecting data on total arsenic abundance and organoarsenical speciation in the tissue from coral reef organisms collected from the arsenic-rich marine shallow-water hydrothermal system off Ambitle Island, PNG.

For my phd research, a biocomplexity project funded by the National Science Foundation, I have determined the concentration, distribution, and bioavailability of arsenic introduced into a coral-reef ecosystem by hydrothermal vents on Ambitle Island, Papua, New Guinea. My masters research involved analysis of carbonate core samples from the Suwannee Limestone, Upper Floridan aquifer, in an effort to determine the exact location, spatial distribution, and mineralogical phases of naturally occurring arsenic in the rock. This naturally occurring arsenic is being released during Aquifer Storage and Recovery projects throughout southwest Florida as a result of the oxidation of diagenetic framboidal pyrite.