KEY CONTRIBUTIONS OF W. BERRY LYONS TO TRANSDISCIPLINARY GEOCHEMICAL EXPLORATION

This talk highlights important discoveries made throughout the career of W. Berry Lyons to the field of Geochemistry. Dr. Lyons was among the first to accurately measure trace elements in the ocean and from this, his work broadened to consider element cycling in coastal and lake pore waters and hypersaline lake systems in Australia. His expertise and interests lead him to the Greenland Ice Sheet where a lifelong career in polar research was launched. His polar investigations include all components of hydrologic cycle from precipitation to lake, and highlight the importance of chemical weathering in cold, dry environments. Berry’s systems-thinking was critical to his leadership while directing the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research program. But polar research is only one of many threads in Dr. Lyons’s career. Berry has also been recognized for his work as a limnologist in non-polar settings conducting research spanning latitudes from pole to tropics. His work on the geochemistry of sub-tropical and tropical small mountainous rivers has drawn wide attention to the role these streams play in the global carbon cycle. In temperate regions, Dr. Lyons’s river research has provided invaluable insight into the biogeochemical cycling of environmental contaminants, ranging from agricultural to urban. Collectively, his research has provided us with a much greater understanding of biogeochemical cycles at a global scale.