Tonya DelSontro

Tonya DelSontro’s research focus is to advance our understanding of how human activities and climate change alter aquatic carbon cycles and greenhouse gas budgets. She integrates field-based system analyses and experimental laboratory work to define and predict anthropogenic impacts on aquatic greenhouse dynamics from local and regional to global scales.

• Greenhouse gas dynamics of inland waters
• Quantification of methane ebullition (bubbling)
• Upscaling aquatic greenhouse gas and carbon emissions
• Anthropogenic impacts on climatic feedback of inland waters
• Hydropower reservoirs in the global carbon cycle
• Lake sediment greenhouse gas dynamic
• Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage
• Climate Change and Geosciences
• Increasingly Complex Water Challenges
• Protection of Drinking Water from the Ravages of Climate Change

Professor DelSontro’s research interests lie in understanding how anthropogenic impacts, such as eutrophication, influence carbon cycles and integrated greenhouse gas (CO2+CH4+N2O) budgets in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and wetlands/ponds. She aims to define the drivers of budget shifts and use them to better asses the vulnerability of other regions to human-induced changes in aquatic carbon dynamics. As the global warming potential of greenhouse gases vary, shifts in their emissions could lead to an exacerbation or an easing of climate change. Understanding our role in the climatic impact of inland waters will guide us in creating climate-friendly policies when managing our waterways.

• 2011 Ph.D., Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• 2006 M.Sc. Marine Science, Department of Earth Science, University of California Santa Barbara
• 2003 B.Sc. Marine Science, Stockton University, NJ

• 2019 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, European Commission
• 2019 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence, European Commission
• 2019 Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing, American Geophysical Union
• 2014 Advanced Postdoctoral Mobility Fellowship, Swiss National Science Foundation
• 2012 Outstanding Poster Award, European Geophysical Union
• 2005 Preston Cloud Award, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara
• 2003 Valedictorian of Class of 2003, Stockton University, NJ
• 2003 Dean of Students Service Award, Stockton University, NJ
• 2001 ECCO Marine Science Scholarship, Stockton University, NJ

• 2020: Working Group Moderator, Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) 21.5 Meeting
• 2019: Organizing Committee, GLEON 21 Meeting
• 2016-2019: Meetings Committee, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)
• 2017-2018: Scientific Organizing Committee, ASLO 2018 Aquatic Science meeting
• 2018: Organizing Committee, Physical Processes in Natural Waters (PPNW) 2018 meeting

• Member of AGU, ASLO, GLEON, Society of Canadian Aquatic Sciences

• Member, Water Institute

• EARTH 642 - Geoliminology
  • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Please see Tonya DelSontro’s Google Scholar profile for a list of her peer-reviewed publications.

• 26 March 2018 – Green lakes could accelerate global warming
• 26 March 2018 – Fertilization drives global lake emissions of greenhouse gases
• 14 October 2010 – Reservoirs: A neglected source of methane emissions
• 12 October 2010 - Reservoirs could be secret climate sinners (in German)