Dr Heather Buss

Research summary

       The rates and mechanisms of weathering processes are important to understanding a variety of environmentally and economically important issues including the (bio)geochemical cycling of mineral nutrients, the evolution of landforms, and the long-term drawdown of atmospheric CO2. Most weathering occurs within the “critical zone”, which is the external layer of the terrestrial Earth from the vegetation canopy to fractured bedrock. This zone sustains most terrestrial life on the planet, yet natural and human-related processes perturb and threaten the critical zone worldwide. Undoubtedly, the most significant aspect of weathering is the breakdown of rocks to form soils, a process that ...

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Biography

I am a Proleptic Lecturer and hold a Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship. My fellowship research involves developing the use of Mg and Li isotopes as a dual tracer to quantitatively distinguish the biological from the geochemical components of the Mg cycle in the critical zone, with an emphasis on the complex soil environment. In my previous position, I was a Research Geochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California. In that position, I was the lead scientist and director for the Luquillo, Puerto Rico WEBB watersheds, one of 5 sites nationwide that comprise the USGS Water ...

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Selected publications

• Buss, H, Mathur, R, White, A & Brantley, S 2010, ‘Iron and phosphorus cycling in deep saprolite, Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico’. Chemical Geology, vol 269., pp. 52 - 61
• Buss, H, Sak, P, Webb, S & Brantley, S 2008, ‘Weathering of the Rio Blanco quartz diorite, Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico: Coupling oxidation, dissolution, and fracturing’. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol 72., pp. 4488 - 4507

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View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system