Staff Profile

Background

My scientific research centres around trace gases and the quantification of their chemical and biological origins. The majority of this research has been conducted in open ocean blue waters. In September 2021, I joined the Earth Ocean and Planetary Science research group within the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University.  At Newcastle, I will expand upon my marine background to investigate trace gas dynamics across a broader range of ecosystems and microbial model systems. Examples of this research include the use of hydrogen gas to understand biological nitrogen fixation, standardization of methane and nitrous oxide measurements, and establishment of the Newcastle coastal observatory.

My personal website is here: www.samtwilson.com

My Google Scholar link is https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NAfP95MAAAAJ&hl=en

Qualifications and positions

2021 Newcastle University, Professor of Biogeochemistry

2017 University of Hawaii, non-tenured Researcher

2012 University of Hawaii affiliate scientist

2007 Postdoctoral scholar, University of Hawaii  

2007 PhD, Scottish Association for Marine Science

1999 BSc, University of Wales, Swansea 

• Articles

  • Fulweiler RW, Berberich ME, Rinehart SA, Taylor JM, Kelly MC, Ray NE, Oczkowski A, Balint SJ, Geisser AH, Mahoney CR, Benavides M, Church MJ, Loeks B, Newell SE, Olofsson M, Oppong JC, Roley SS, Vizza C, Wilson ST, Groffman PM, Scott JT, Marcarelli AM. A global dataset of nitrogen fixation rates across inland and coastal waters. Limnology and Oceanography Letters 2025, 10(3), 412-429.
  • Schvarcz CR, Stancheva R, Turk-Kubo KA, Wilson ST, Zehr JP, Edwards KF, Steward GF, Archibald JM, Oatley G, Sinclair E, Santos C, Paulini M, Aunin E, Gettle N, Niu H, McKenna V, O'Brien R. The genome sequences of the marine diatom Epithemia pelagica strain UHM3201 (Schvarcz, Stancheva & Steward, 2022) and its nitrogen-fixing, endosymbiotic cyanobacterium. Wellcome Open Research 2024, 9, 232.
  • Beckett SJ, Demory D, Coenen AR, Casey JR, Dugenne M, Follett CL, Connell P, Carlson MCG, Hu SK, Wilson ST, Muratore D, Rodriguez-Gonzalez RA, Peng S, Becker KW, Mende DR, Armbrust EV, Caron DA, Lindell D, White AE, Ribalet F, Weitz JS. Disentangling top-down drivers of mortality underlying diel population dynamics of Prochlorococcus in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Nature Communications 2024, 15(1), 2105.
  • Dugenne M, Gradoville MR, Church MJ, Wilson ST, Sheyn U, Harke MJ, Bjorkman KM, Hawco NJ, Hynes AM, Ribalet F, Karl DM, DeLong EF, Dyhrman ST, Armbrust EV, John S, Eppley JM, Harding K, Stewart B, Cabello AM, Turk-Kubo KA, Caffin M, White AE, Zehr JP. Nitrogen Fixation in Mesoscale Eddies of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre: Patterns and Mechanisms. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 2023, 37(4), e2022GB007386.
  • Shao Z, Xu Y, Wang H, Luo W, Wang L, Huang Y, Nona Sheila RA, Ahmed A, Benavides M, Bentzon-Tilia M, Berman-Frank I, Berthelot H, Biegala IC, Bif MB, Bode A, Bonnet S, Bronk DA, Brown MV, Campbell L, Capone DG, Carpenter EJ, Cassar N, Chang BX, Chappell D, Yuh-Ling LC, Church MJ, Cornejo-Castillo FM, Sacilotto Detoni AM, Doney SC, Dupouy C, Estrada M, Fernandez C, Fernandez-Castro B, Fonseca-Batista D, Foster RA, Furuya K, Garcia N, Goto K, Gago J, Gradoville MR, Hamersley MR, Henke BA, Horstmann C, Jayakumar A, Jiang Z, Kao S-J, Karl DM, Kittu LR, Knapp AN, Kumar S, LaRoche J, Liu H, Liu J, Lory C, Loscher CR, Maranon E, Messer LF, Mills MM, Mohr W, Moisander PH, Mahaffey C, Moore R, Mourino-Carballido B, Mulholland MR, Shin-Ichiro N, Needoba JA, Raes EJ, Rahav E, Ramirez-Cardenas T, Reeder CF, Riemann L, Riou V, Robidart JC, Sarma VVSS, Sato T, Saxena H, Selden C, Seymour JR, Shi D, Shiozaki T, Singh A, Sipler RE, Sun J, Suzuki K, Takahashi K, Tan Y, Tang W, Tremblay J-E, Turk-Kubo K, Wen Z, White AE, Wilson ST, Yoshida T, Zehr JP, Zhang R, Zhang Y, Luo Y-W. Global oceanic diazotroph database version 2 and elevated estimate of global oceanic N₂ fixation. Earth System Science Data 2023, 15(8), 3673-3709.
  • Schvarcz CR, Wilson ST, Caffin M, Stancheva R, Li Q, Turk-Kubo KA, White AE, Karl DM, Zehr JP, Steward GF. Overlooked and widespread pennate diatom-diazotroph symbioses in the sea. Nature Communications 2022, 13, 799.
  • Muratore D, Boysen AK, Harke MJ, Becker KW, Casey JR, Coesel SN, Mende DR, Wilson ST, Aylward FO, Eppley JM, Vislova A, Peng S, Rodriguez-Gonzalez RA, Beckett SJ, Virginia Armbrust E, DeLong EF, Karl DM, White AE, Zehr JP, Van Mooy BAS, Dyhrman ST, Ingalls AE, Weitz JS. Complex marine microbial communities partition metabolism of scarce resources over the diel cycle. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2022, 6(2), 218-229.
  • Foreman RK, Bjorkman KM, Funkey CP, Hawco NJ, Wilson ST, Rohrer T, White AE, John SG, Karl DM. Phosphate Scavenging During Lava-Seawater Interaction Offshore of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 2021, 22(7), e2021GC009754.
  • Gradoville MR, Cabello AM, Wilson ST, Turk-Kubo KA, Karl DM, Zehr JP. Light and depth dependency of nitrogen fixation by the non-photosynthetic, symbiotic cyanobacterium UCYN-A. Environmental Microbiology 2021, 23(8), 4518-4531.
  • Wilson ST, Caffin M, White AE, Karl DM. Evaluation of argon-induced hydrogen production as a method to measure nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria. Journal of Phycology 2021, 57(3), 863-873.
  • Zhang Y, Ryan JP, Hobson BW, Kieft B, Romano A, Barone B, Preston CM, Roman B, Raanan B-Y, Pargett D, Dugenne M, White AE, Freitas FH, Poulos S, Wilson ST, DeLong EF, Karl DM, Birch JM, Bellingham JG, Scholin CA. A system of coordinated autonomous robots for Lagrangian studies of microbes in the oceanic deep chlorophyll maximum. Science Robotics 2021, 6(50), abb9138.
  • Mills MM, Turk-Kubo KA, van Dijken GL, Henke BA, Harding K, Wilson ST, Arrigo KR, Zehr JP. Unusual marine cyanobacteria/haptophyte symbiosis relies on N₂ fixation even in N-rich environments. ISME Journal 2020, 14(10), 2395-2406.
  • Sosa OA, Burrell TJ, Wilson ST, Foreman RK, Karl DM, Repeta DJ. Phosphonate cycling supports methane and ethylene supersaturation in the phosphate-depleted western North Atlantic Ocean. Limnology and Oceanography 2020, 65(10), 2443-2459.
  • Hawco NJ, Yang S-C, Foreman RK, Funkey CP, Dugenne M, White AE, Wilson ST, Kelly RL, Bian X, Huang K-F, Karl DM, John SG. Metal isotope signatures from lava-seawater interaction during the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 2020, 282, 340-356.
  • Dugenne M, Henderikx Freitas F, Wilson ST, Karl DM, White AE. Life and death of Crocosphaera sp. in the Pacific Ocean: Fine scale predator–prey dynamics. Limnology and Oceanography 2020, 65(11), 2603-2617.
  • Yang S, Chang BX, Warner MJ, Weber TS, Bourbonnais AM, Santoro AE, Kock A, Sonnerup RE, Bullister JL, Wilson ST, Bianchi D. Global reconstruction reduces the uncertainty of oceanic nitrous oxide emissions and reveals a vigorous seasonal cycle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2020, 117(22), 11954-11960.
  • Klawonn I, Eichner MJ, Wilson ST, Moradi N, Thamdrup B, Kummel S, Gehre M, Khalili A, Grossart H-P, Karl DM, Ploug H. Distinct nitrogen cycling and steep chemical gradients in Trichodesmium colonies. ISME Journal 2020, 14(2), 399-412.
  • Zhang Y, Kieft B, Hobson BW, Ryan JP, Barone B, Preston CM, Roman B, Raanan B-Y, Marin Iii R, O'Reilly TC, Rueda CA, Pargett D, Yamahara KM, Poulos S, Romano A, Foreman G, Ramm H, Wilson ST, Delong EF, Karl DM, Birch JM, Bellingham JG, Scholin CA. Autonomous Tracking and Sampling of the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum Layer in an Open-Ocean Eddy by a Long-Range Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 2020, 45(4), 1308-1321.
  • Inomura K, Deutsch C, Wilson ST, Masuda T, Lawrenz E, Lenka B, Sobotka R, Gauglitz MA, Saito JF, Prasil O, Follows MJ. Quantifying oxygen management and temperature and light dependencies of nitrogen fixation by Crocosphaera watsonii. mSphere 2019, 4(6), e00531-19.
  • Inomura K, Wilson ST, Deutsch C. Mechanistic model for the coexistence of nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis in marine Trichodesmium. mSystems 2019, 4(4), e00210-19.
  • Wilson ST, Hawco NJ, Armbrust EV, Barone B, Bjorkman KM, Boysen AK, Burgos M, Burrell TJ, Casey JR, DeLong EF, Dugenne M, Dutkiewicz S, Dyhrman ST, Ferron S, Follows MJ, Foreman RK, Funkey CP, Harke MJ, Henke BA, Hill CN, Hynes AM, Ingalls AE, Jahn O, Kelly RL, Knapp AN, Letelier RM, Ribalet F, Shimabukuro EM, Tabata RKS, Turk-Kubo KA, White AE, Zehr JP, John S, Karl DM. Kīlauea lava fuels phytoplankton bloom in the North Pacific Ocean. Science 2019, 365(6457), 1040-1044.
  • Robidart JC, Magasin JD, Shilova IN, Turk-Kubo KA, Wilson ST, Karl DM, Scholin CA, Zehr JP. Effects of nutrient enrichment on surface microbial community gene expression in the oligotrophic North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. ISME Journal 2019, 13(2), 374-387.
  • Hynson NA, Frank KL, Alegado RA, Amend AS, Arif M, Bennett GM, Jani AJ, Medeiros MCI, Mileyko Y, Nelson CE, Nguyen NH, Nigro OD, Prisic S, Shin S, Takagi D, Wilson ST, Yew JY. Synergy among microbiota and their hosts: Leveraging the Hawaiian archipelago and local collaborative networks to address pressing questions in microbiome research. mSystems 2018, 3(2), e00159-17.
  • Royer S-J, Ferron S, Wilson ST, Karl DM. Production of methane and ethylene from plastic in the environment. PLoS ONE 2018, 13(8), e0200574.
  • Follett CL, White AE, Wilson ST, Follows MJ. Nitrogen fixation rates diagnosed from diurnal changes in elemental stoichiometry. Limnology and Oceanography 2018, 63(5), 1911-1923.
  • Thompson AW, van den Engh G, Ahlgren NA, Kouba K, Ward S, Wilson ST, Karl DM. Dynamics of Prochlorococcus Diversity and Photoacclimation During Short-Term Shifts in Water Column Stratification at Station ALOHA. Frontiers in Marine Science 2018, 5, 488.
  • Martinez-Garcia S, Bidigare RR, del Valle DA, Juranek LW, Nicholson DP, Viviani DA, Wilson ST, Church MJ. Control of net community production by microbial community respiration at Station ALOHA. Journal of Marine Systems 2018, 184, 28-35.
  • Bottjer D, Dore JE, Karl DM, Letelier RM, Mahaffey C, Wilson ST, Zehr J, Church MJ. Temporal variability of nitrogen fixation and particulate nitrogen export at Station ALOHA. Limnology and Oceanography 2017, 62(1), 200-216.
  • Palevsky HI, Martz T, Ingalls AE, Gledhill M, Fawcett S, Brandes JA, Aluwihare L, Aluwihare L, Anderson R, Bender S, Boyle E, Brandes J, Bronk D, Buesseler K, Burdige D, Casciotti K, Close H, Conte M, Cutter G, Estapa M, Fassbender A, Fassbender A, Fennel K, Ferron S, Glazer B, Goni M, Grand M, Guay C, Hatta M, Hayes C, Horner T, Ingall E, Ingalls A, Johnson K, Juranek L, Knapp AN, Lam P, Luther G, Matrai P, Measures C, Nicholson D, Paytan A, Pellenbarg R, Popendorf K, Reddy C, Ruttenberg K, Sabine C, Sansone F, Shaltout N, Sikes E, Sundquist E, Valentine D, Wang ZA, Wilson S, Barrett P, Behrens M, Belcher A, Biermann L, Boiteau R, Clarke J, Collins J, Coppola A, Ebling A, Garcia-Tigreros F, Goldman J, Guallart EF, Haskell W, Hurley S, Janssen D, Johnson W, Lennartz S, Liu S, Palevsky H, Rahman S, Ray D, Sarkar A, Steiner Z, Widner B, Yang B. Perspectives on Chemical Oceanography in the 21st century: Participants of the COME ABOARD Meeting examine aspects of the field in the context of 40 years of DISCO. Marine Chemistry 2017, 196, 181-190.
  • Engel A, Wagner H, Le Moigne FAC, Wilson ST. Particle export fluxes to the oxygen minimum zone of the eastern tropical North Atlantic. Biogeosciences 2017, 14(7), 1825-1838.
  • Wilson ST, Ferron S, Karl DM. Interannual Variability of Methane and Nitrous Oxide in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Geophysical Research Letters 2017, 44(19), 9885-9892.
  • Wilson ST, Aylward FO, Ribalet F, Barone B, Casey JR, Connell PE, Eppley JM, Ferron S, Fitzsimmons JN, Hayes CT, Romano AE, Turk-Kubo KA, Vislova A, Virginia Armbrust E, Caron DA, Church MJ, Zehr JP, Karl DM, De Long EF. Coordinated regulation of growth, activity and transcription in natural populations of the unicellular nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Crocosphaera. Nature Microbiology 2017, 2, 17118.
  • Eichner MJ, Klawonn I, Wilson ST, Littmann S, Whitehouse MJ, Church MJ, Kuypers MMM, Karl DM, Ploug H. Chemical microenvironments and single-cell carbon and nitrogen uptake in field-collected colonies of Trichodesmium under different pCO2. ISME Journal 2017, 11(6), 1305-1317.
  • Rouco M, Haley ST, Alexander H, Wilson ST, Karl DM, Dyhrman ST. Variable depth distribution of Trichodesmium clades in the North Pacific Ocean. Environmental Microbiology Reports 2016, 8(6), 1058-1066.
  • Wilson ST, Barone B, Ascani F, Bidigare RR, Church MJ, Del Valle DA, Dyhrman ST, Ferron S, Fitzsimmons JN, Juranek LW, Kolber ZS, Letelier RM, Martinez-Garcia S, Nicholson DP, Richards KJ, Rii YM, Rouco M, Viviani DA, White AE, Zehr JP, Karl DM. Short-term variability in euphotic zone biogeochemistry and primary productivity at Station ALOHA: A case study of summer 2012. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 2015, 29(8), 1145-1164.
  • Nicholson DP, Wilson ST, Doney SC, Karl DM. Quantifying subtropical North Pacific gyre mixed layer primary productivity from Seaglider observations of diel oxygen cycles. Geophysical Research Letters 2015, 42(10), 4032-4039.
  • Ferron S, Wilson ST, Martinez-Garcia S, Quay PD, Karl DM. Metabolic balance in the mixed layer of the oligotrophic North Pacific Ocean from diel changes in O2/Ar saturation ratios. Geophysical Research Letters 2015, 42(9), 3421-3430.
  • Bombar D, Taylor CD, Wilson ST, Robidart JC, Rabines A, Turk-Kubo KA, Kemp JN, Karl DM, Zehr JP. Measurements of nitrogen fixation in the oligotrophic North Pacific Subtropical Gyre using a free-drifting submersible incubation device. Journal of Plankton Research 2015, 37(4), 727-739.
  • Alexander H, Rouco M, Haley ST, Wilson ST, Karl DM, Dyhrman ST. Functional group-specific traits drive phytoplankton dynamics in the oligotrophic ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2015, 112(44), E5972-E5979.
  • Braun A, Boudoire F, Bora DK, Faccio G, Hu Y, Kroll A, Mun BS, Wilson ST. Biological components and bioelectronic interfaces of water splitting photoelectrodes for solar hydrogen production. Chemistry - A European Journal 2015, 21(11), 4188-4199.
  • Bidigare RR, Buttler FR, Christensen SJ, Barone B, Karl DM, Wilson ST. Evaluation of the utility of xanthophyll cycle pigment dynamics for assessing upper ocean mixing processes at Station ALOHA. Journal of Plankton Research 2014, 36(6), 1423-1433.
  • Robidart JC, Church MJ, Ryan JP, Ascani F, Wilson ST, Bombar D, Marin III R, Richards KJ, Karl DM, Scholin CA, Zehr JP. Ecogenomic sensor reveals controls on N₂-fixing microorganisms in the North Pacific Ocean. ISME Journal 2014, 8(6), 1175-1185.
  • Lin H-T, Cowen JP, Olson EJ, Lilley MD, Jungbluth SP, Wilson ST, Rappe MS. Dissolved hydrogen and methane in the oceanic basaltic biosphere. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 2014, 405, 62-73.
  • Wilson ST, del Valle DA, Segura-Noguera M, Karl DM. A role for nitrite in the production of nitrous oxide in the lower euphotic zone of the oligotrophic North Pacific Ocean. Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 2014, 85, 47-55.
  • Wilson ST, del Valle DA, Robidart JC, Zehr JP, Karl DM. Dissolved hydrogen and nitrogen fixation in the oligotrophic North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Environmental Microbiology Reports 2013, 5(5), 697-704.
  • Wilson ST, Kolber ZS, Tozzi S, Zehr JP, Karl DM. Nitrogen fixation, hydrogen cycling, and electron transport kinetics in trichodesmium erythraeum (cyanobacteria) strain ims101. Journal of Phycology 2012, 48(3), 595-606.
  • Wilson ST, Bottjer D, Church MJ, Karl DM. Comparative assessment of nitrogen fixation methodologies, conducted in the oligotrophic north pacific ocean. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2012, 78(18), 6516-6523.
  • Wilson ST, Foster RA, Zehr JP, Karl DM. Hydrogen production by Trichodesmium erythraeum Cyanothece sp. and Crocosphaera watsonii. Aquatic Microbial Ecology 2010, 59(2), 197-206.
  • Wilson ST, Tozzi S, Foster RA, Ilikchyan I, Kolber ZS, Zehr JP, Karl DM. Hydrogen cycling by the unicellular marine diazotroph crocosphaera watsonii strain WH8501∇. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2010, 76(20), 6797-6803.

• Editorial

  • Wilson ST, Church MJ. Editorial: Microbial ecology in the north pacific subtropical gyre. Frontiers in Marine Science 2018, 5, 334.

• Reviews

  • White AE, Granger J, Selden C, Gradoville MR, Potts L, Bourbonnais A, Fulweiler RW, Knapp AN, Mohr W, Moisander PH, Tobias CR, Caffin M, Wilson ST, Benavides M, Bonnet S, Mulholland MR, Chang BX. A critical review of the 15N2 tracer method to measure diazotrophic production in pelagic ecosystems. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 2020, 18(4), 129-147.