Professor Michael Krom is Head of the Marine Biogeochemistry group. My first degree was from Queens’ College Cambridge and after doing a Ph.D. at Edinburgh university did postdoctoral fellowships with Bob Berner and Karl Turekian at Yale University. My research interests are at the interface between Environmental Geochemistry and Biology. Most of my research has been on nutrient cycling (P, N and Fe) in aquatic and sedimentary systems. This has included work on P and N cycling in the Eastern Mediterranean (probably my most important work), and in marine and freshwater sediments. I have worked on the how atmospheric alter the bioavailability of Fe and P in Saharan dust where I have worked also with climate modellers.  I worked for many years on developing sustainable mariculture systems initially at the NMC, IOLR, Eilat. I was one of the two oceanography experts on the feasibility study for the Red Sea Dead Sea canal. I am currently ranked top of the Earth Scientists in Israel (Research.com)

Marine Environmental Biogeochemistry

Understanding nutrient cycling (Phosphorus, Nitrogen and Silica) is key to controlling the base of the food chain in the global ocean. The Eastern Mediterranean is a unique sea which although an inland sea with a large pollutant input acts as an ocean gyre and a special natural lab for globally important biogeochemical processes.  The lab at the Sdot Yam Marine station monitors nutrient changes in order to quantify the effects of environmental and climate change in the modern world as well as using sediment records to understand climate change over the last 20k years. We are developing detailed knowledge of key marine processes to use in developing effective means of climate restoration.