Matthew Wooller

Matthew Wooller

he/him/his

Professor

Chemical Oceanography
Marine Biology
Marine Ecology


College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ Stable Isotope Facility
Room 481 Duckering Building
Fairbanks, AK 99775
907-474-6738
mjwooller@alaska.edu

Office Hours

Mon, Tues, Thur
10:30 – 11:30 am
461 Duckering

Education

University of Wales – Bangor
Ph.D. Ecology

University of Wales – Bangor
M.S. Ecology

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

Advising

 

Publications

Gaglioti, B.V., D.H. Mann, P. Groves, M.L. Kunz, L.M. Farquharson, R.E. Reanier, B.M. Jones, and M.J. Wooller. (2018). "Aeolian stratigraphy describes ice-age paleoenvironments in unglaciated Arctic ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ". Quaternary Science Reviews. 182:175–190.
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Glassburn, C.L., B.A. Potter, J.L. Clark, J.D. Reuther, D.L. Bruning, and M.J. Wooller. (2018). "Strontium and oxygen isotope profiles of sequentially sampled modern bison (bison bison bison) teeth from Interior ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ as proxies of seasonal mobility". Arctic Institute of North America. 71(2):183–200.
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Mariash, H.L., M. Cazzanelli, M. Rautio , L. Hamerlik, M.J. Wooller, and K.S. Christoffersen. (2018). "Changes in food web dynamics of low arctic ponds with varying content of dissolved organic carbon". Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. 50(1)
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Miller, G.H., J.W. Magee, M.L. Fogel, M.J. Wooller, P.P. Hesse, N.A. Spooner, B.J. Johnson, and L. Wallis. (2018). "Wolfe Creek Crater: A continuous sediment fill in the Australian Arid Zone records changes in monsoon strength through the Late Quaternary". Quaternary Science Reviews. 197:1–18.

Nelson, M.A., L.T. Quakenbush, B.A. Mahoney, B.D. Taras, and M.J. Wooller. (2018). "Fifty years of Cook Inlet beluga whale feeding ecology from isotopes in bone and teeth". Endangered Species Research. 36:77–87.
doi:

van Hardenbroek, M., A. Chakraborty, K.L. Davies, P. Harding, O. Heiri, A.C.G. Henderson, J.A. Holmes, G.E. Lasher, M.J. Leng, V.N. Panizzo, L. Roberts, J. Schilder, C.N. Trueman, and M.J. Wooller. (2018). "The stable isotope composition of organic and inorganic fossils in lake sediment records: Current understanding, challenges, and future directions". Quaternary Science Reviews. 196:154–176.
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van Hardenbroek, M., P. Rinta, M.J. Wooller, J. Schilder, T. Stötter, and O. Heiri. (2018). "Flotsam samples can help explain the delta13C and delta15N values of invertebrate resting stages in lake sediment". Quaternary Science Reviews. 189:187–196.
doi:

Wooller, M.J., É. Saulnier-Talbot, B.A. Potter, S. Belmecheri, N. Bigelow, K. Choy, L.C. Cwynar, K. Davies, R.W. Graham, J. Kurek, P. Langdon, A. Medeiros, R. Rawcliffe, Y. Wang, and J.W. Williams. (2018). "A new terrestrial palaeoenvironmental record from the Bering Land Bridge and context for human dispersal". Royal Society Open Science. 2018(5):180145.
doi:

Arppe, L., E. Kurki, M.J. Wooller, T.P. Luoto, M. Zajaczkowski, and A.E.K. Ojala. (2017). "A 5500-year oxygen isotope record of high arctic environmental change from southern Spitsbergen". The Holocene. 27(12):1948–1962.
doi:

Gaglioti, B.V., D.H. Mann, M.J. Wooller, B.M. Jones, G.C. Wiles, P. Groves, M.L. Kunz, C.A. Baughman, and R.E. Reanier. (2017). "Younger-Dryas cooling and sea-ice feedbacks were prominent features of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Arctic ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ". Quaternary Science Reviews. 169:330–343.
doi:

Oxtoby, L.E., L. Horstmann, S.M. Budge, D.M. O’Brien, S.W. Wang, T. Schollmeier, and M.J. Wooller. (2017). "Resource partitioning between Pacific walruses and bearded seals in the ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ Arctic and sub-Arctic". Oecologia. 184(2):385–398.
doi:

Rabanus-Wallace, M.T., M.J. Wooller, G.D. Zazula, E. Shute, A.H. Jahren, P. Kosintsev, J.A. Burns, J. Breen, B. Llamas, and A. Cooper. (2017). "Megafaunal isotopes reveal role of increased moisture on rangeland during late Pleistocene extinctions". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1
doi:

Schollmeier, T., A.C.M. Oliveira, M.J. Wooller, and K. Iken. (2017). "Tracing sea ice algae into various benthic feeding types on the Chukchi Sea shelf". Polar Biology. 41(2):207–224.
doi:

Wang, Y., P.D. Heintzman, L. Newsom, N.H. Bigelow, M.J. Wooller, B. Shapiro, and J.W. Williams. (2017). "The southern coastal Beringian land bridge: cryptic refugium or pseudorefugium for woody plants during the Last Glacial Maximum?". Journal of Biogeography. 44(7):1559–1571.
doi:

Choy, K., B.A. Potter, H.J. McKinney, J.D. Reuther, S.W. Wang, and M.J. Wooller. (2016). "Chemical profiling of ancient hearths reveals recurrent salmon use in Ice Age Beringia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113(35):9757–9762.
doi:

Oxtoby, L.E., J.T. Mathis, L.W. Juranek, and M.J. Wooller. (2016). "Estimating stable carbon isotope values of microphytobenthos in the Arctic for application to food web studies". Polar Biology. 39(3):473–483.
doi:

Oxtoby, L.E., S.M. Budge, K. Iken, D.M. O’Brien, and M.J. Wooller. (2016). "Feeding ecologies of key bivalve and polychaete species in the Bering Sea as elucidated by fatty acid and compound-specific stable isotope analyses". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 557:161–175.
doi:

Padilla, A., R.J. Brown, and M.J. Wooller. (2016). "Determining the movements and distribution of anadromous Bering Ciscoes by use of otolith strontium isotopes". Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 145(6):1374–1385.
doi:

Rinta, P., M. van Hardenbroek, R.I. Jones, P. Kankaala, F. Rey, S. Szidat, M.J. Wooller, and O. Heiri. (2016). "Land use affects carbon sources to the pelagic food web in a small boreal lake". PLoS ONE. 11(8):e0159900.
doi:

Wang, S.W., A.M. Springer, S.M. Budge, L. Horstmann, L.T. Quakenbush, and M.J. Wooller. (2016). "Carbon sources and trophic relationships of ice seals during recent environmental shifts in the Bering Sea". Ecological Applications. 26(3):830–845.
doi:

Specialties

  • Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry
  • Quaternary Paleoclimate and Paleoecology
  • Elemental cycling (C N) and food web ecology

 

Research Overview

Dr. Wooller is an interdisciplinary scientist applying stable isotope techniques to understand the influence of changing environmental conditions on past and present ecosystems. By including a better understanding how modern environments function he hopes to appreciate how the past operated. A better understanding of biotic responses to global change will encourage rigorous testing of environmental models, allowing future environmental scenarios to be assessed. Dr. Wooller is jointly appointed with the Water and Environmental Research Center at ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ and is the Director of the ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ Stable Isotope Facility and Director of the ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ Quaternary Center. Isotopes (of C,N,O,H and Sr) feature as the primary analytical tools that Dr. Wooller uses to study a wide range of environmental and ecological questions. For example these include some of the current research areas: The reconstruction of past environmental conditions in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Studying changes in the migration patterns and diets of animals (including sea lions, bowhead whales, eiders) in the Arctic.

 

Current Research Projects

  • Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment and Other Potential Drivers of Extinction of Mammuthus primigenius , St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ (National Science Foundation) This project will facilitate a better understanding of why woolly mammoths survived late into the mid-Holocene only in the environments of arctic islands of the BLB. Furthermore, this research is testing various hypotheses proposed to explain the extinction of the Holocene mammoth population on St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ, as well as establish the actual time of extinction.
  • Exploring intrasite variability at Upward Sun River (Xaasaa Na’), a terminal Pleistocene site in central ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ: foraging behaviors and paleoenvironmental contexts (National Science Foundation) This project consists of exploration of Upward Sun River (USR) (Xaasaa Na’), a deeply buried multicomponent site in central ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ, associated with the earliest human remains and residential structure in the Arctic or Subarctic of North America (~11,500 cal BP). This exploration will focus on understanding technological organization and subsistence economy (fauna and floral use) in the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene, specifically how they are conditioned by site structure and organization, social organization, seasonality, and paleoenvironmental contexts.
  • Identifying sources of organic matter to benthic organisms in the Beaufort and Chukchi outer continental shelves (CMI/BOEM). Benthic invertebrate communities in the Arctic are an essential ecosystem component in Arctic food webs, in terms of mineralization and energy transfer to higher trophic levels. Currently, the proportional contributions of different baseline sources of organic matter (marine, terrestrial or microbial carbon production) that sustain benthic organisms in the Arctic are unclear. This project will provide a better understanding of the organic matter sources consumed by benthic organisms, using a state-of-the-art fingerprinting approach for essential amino acids.

 

Affiliations

  • Water and Environmental Research Center, ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ
  • ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ Stable Isotope Facility
  • Institute of Marine Science, ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ
  • Institute of Northern Engineering

 

Links to Other Places