I am an environmental biogeochemist, predominantly investigating the carbon cycle with a particular interest at the terrestrial-aquatic interface. I use geochemistry to investigate biogeochemical cycles within the critical zone over a range of disciplines (geochemistry, geology, hydrology) as well as spatial (local, regional, and global) and temporal (Pleistocene to modern) scales. This involves using a suite of analytical, experimental, and modeling techniques that link to worldwide efforts to better understand global changes in carbon cycling with global change. Specifically, I examine the impacts of land-use change and anthropogenic activity on the export of organic matter (OM) in rivers and the processing of OM and the release of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) in downstream estuaries. I also study the impacts of climate change on coastal wetland OM amount and composition and on dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) fluxes from wetland ecosystems.
For personal background, I am originally from Indiana and I was the first person from my family to go to college, obtaining my Bachelors degree in Marine science and Biology from the University of Miami. After a year off from academics, I went on to receive my Masters degree in Geology under the guidance of Dr. Beth Caissie from Iowa State University and then obtained my Ph.D. in Geology under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Bianchi at the University of Florida, where my research revolved around the impacts of mangrove expansion into northern Florida saltmarshes on carbon burial. During Covid, I worked as a postdoc at Florida State University where I examined anthropogenic impacts on dissolved organic matter (DOM) quantity and quality in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. I then served as a postdoc at Yale University in the Center for Natural Carbon Capture. Through this work, I developed the Blue Carbon Timescale Network, which aims to improve our understanding of long-term carbon burial in coastal wetlands, and examined carbon export from the Florida Everglades to the Gulf of Mexico.
Vaughn Biogeochemistry Lab 