CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

USDA Effects of land management practices on soil erosion
USDA Soil testing analyses
USGS Identification of source areas of suspended sediments in the Chesapeake Bay
Ohio Sea Grant Rates of oxygen exchange between sediments and water in L. Erie
US Army Corps of Engineers Laboratory Experiments for Bioturbation Coefficients

 

Gerald Matisoff is Professor of Geological Sciences and Chair of the Deparment. He joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University in 1977. His research focuses on mineral, biological, and biogeochemical reactions that govern solution chemistry and chemical mass transport in sediments and on the application of fallout radionuclides (7Be, 137Cs, and 210Pb) to trace the transport of fine sediment through watersheds and the coastal zone. He has served on review panels for NSF, EPA and NOAA and has served as an Associate Editor of Ground Water and the Journal of Great Lakes Research and as Editor of the Journal of Great Lakes Research. In his sediment research he has conducted field and laboratory studies and developed computer models for mineral equilibria, kinetics of organic matter decomposition, kinetics of mineral precipitation/dissolution and oxidation/reduction reactions, sediment biogeochemistry, pore water fluxes, effects of bioturbation on solute and particle transport, and historical loading records of nutrients, metals, pollutants, and natural and anthropogenic radionuclides. Current research includes gamma scan experiments and computer models of particle and solute transport by macrobenthos, laboratory experiments and modeling of biogeochemical reactions to determine sediment oxygen demand and the measurement of fallout radionuclides in soils and runoff to determine the rates and characteristics of soil erosion. Current research funding includes support from Ohio Sea Grant, the US Department of Agriculture, the US Geological Survey, and the Army Corps of Engineers.