Research

My research interests center around carbon and nitrogen cycling in aquatic systems, and how these cycles are impacted by, and feed back into, global change. As a chemical oceanographer, isotope biogeochemist, and organic geochemist, the primary tools I use include the measurement of natural abundance isotopes and methods for the chemical characterization of dissolved organic matter. 

I am currently looking for graduate students to join the group in Fall 2026. In general, I'm looking for students with a strong background in chemistry, an interest in learning about oceanography, and a desire to be involved in fieldwork on research vessels. 

Current Projects:

  • Isotopic and chemical composition of DOM at the start of global overturning circulation
  • DOM composition and dynamics along oxygen gradients in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific oxygen deficient zone (ETNP ODZ)
  • Investigating sources and cycling of dissolved organic matter in coastal Western Canada using advanced isotopic and chemical characterization techniques
  • Tracing organic matter sources, composition and reactivity across Greenlandic fjord systems - exploring the influence of glacier type, climate and other environmental controls

Research Areas

  • Oceanography

2025-present     Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

2021-2025          Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

2014-2021           PhD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, California, USA

Rhyner, T., Reymond, O., Brunmayr, A., Mittelbach, B., White, M., Blattmann, T., Worek, M., Kemeny, P., Janssen, D., Rauch, A., Hanselmann, K., Jaggi, M., Haghipour, N., Broeder, L., Hilton, R., Eglinton, T. Intertwined weathering and metamorphic controls on riverine dissolved inorganic carbon in the interior of a mountain belt. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Act (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2025.11.029

Mittelbach, B. V. A., White, M., Rhyner, T., Haghipour, N., Perga, M.-E., Dubois, N., and Eglinton, T. Deltaic burial of authigenic calcite modulates the carbon balance of hardwater lakes. Biogeosciences 22: 6749–6763 (2025). doi:10.5194/BG-22-6749-2025

Genco, B., White, M., Koester, I., Vargas, S., Saunders, J., Saito, M., Garcia Maldonado, J., Aluwihare, L., Beman, J.M. Tropical cyclones drive oxygen minimum zone shoaling and simultaneously alter organic matter production. Science Advances, 11(23), eado8335 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado8335 

White, M., Mittelbach, B., Escoffier, N., Rhyner, T., Haghipour, N., Janssen, D., Perga, M.-E., Dubois, N., Eglinton, T. Seasonally dynamic dissolved carbon cycling in a large hard water lake. JGR: Biogeosciences 130 (3), e2024JG008645 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JG008645 

Mittelbach, B., Brunmayr, A., White, M., Rhyner, T., Haghipour, N., Blattmann, T., Wessels, M., Dubois, N., Eglinton, T. Pre-aged organic matter dominates organic carbon burial in a major perialpine lake system. Limnology & Oceanography 70 (4): 911-924 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12815

Rhyner, T., Broeder, L., White, M., Mittelbach, B., Brunmayr, A., Hagedorn, F., Storck, F., Passera, L., Haghipour, N., Zobrist, J., Eglinton, T. Radiocarbon signatures of carbon phases exported by Swiss rivers in the Anthropocene. Philosophical Transactions A. 231-2261 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2022.0326 

White, M., Nguyen, T., Koester, I., Lardie Gaylord, M., Beman, J.M., Smith, K., McNichol, A., Beaupré, S., Aluwihare, L. Refractory dissolved organic matter has similar chemical characteristics but different radiocarbon signatures with depth in the marine water column. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 37, e2022GB007603 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GB007603

Koester, I., Quinlan, Z., Nothias, L., White, M., Rabines, A., Petras, D., Brunson, J., Duhrkop, K., Ludwig, M., Boecker, S., Azam, F., Allen, A., Dorrestein, P., Aluwihare, L. Illuminating the dark metabolome of Pseudo-nitzschia-microbiome associations. Environmental Microbiology 24:5408–5424 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16242 

Phillips, A., White, M., Seidel, M., Wu, F., Pavia, F., Kemeny, P., Ma, A., Aluwihare, L., Dittmar, T., Sessions, A. Novel sulfur isotope analyses constrain sulfurized porewater fluxes as a minor component of marine dissolved organic matter. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (41): e2209152119 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209152119 

White, M., Rafter, P., Stephens, B., Mazloff, M., Wankel, S., Aluwihare, L. Stable isotopes of nitrate record effects of the 2015–2016 El Niño and diatom iron limitation on nitrogen cycling in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. Limnology and Oceanography 67 (10): 2140–56 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12194 

Beman, J.M., Vargas, S., Wilson, J., Perez-Coronel, E., Karolewski, J., Vazquez, S., Yu, A., Cairo, A., White, M., Koester, I., Aluwihare, L., Wankel, S. Substantial oxygen consumption by aerobic nitrite oxidation in oceanic oxygen minimum zones. Nature Communications 12:1 12: 1–11 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27381-7 

Petras, D., Minich, J., Kunselman, E., Wang, M., White, M., Allen, E., Aluwihare, L., Dorrestein, P. Non-targeted tandem mass spectrometry enables the visualization of organic matter chemotype shifts in coastal seawater. Chemosphere. 271 (May): 129450 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.129450 

White, M., Rafter, P., Stephens, B., Wankel, S., Aluwihare, L. Recent Increases in Water Column Denitrification in the Seasonally Suboxic Bottom Waters of the Santa Barbara Basin Geophysical Research Letters 46 (12): 6786–95 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082075 

Cyronak, T., Andersson, A., D’Angelo, S., Bresnahan, P., Davidson, C., Griffin, A., Kindeberg, T., Pennise, J., Takeshita, Y., White, M. Short-Term Spatial and Temporal Carbonate Chemistry Variability in Two Contrasting Seagrass Meadows: Implications for pH Buffering Capacities. Estuaries and Coasts 41 (5) (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-017-0356-5