Mr. Rainer Amon

Bio

Dr. Amon holds a Ph.D. in marine sciences from the University of Texas (1995). After his Ph.D. Dr. Amon spent 8 years as a researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany before accepting his position at TAMUG in 2003. Areas of interest include the use of organic matter as a tracer for environmental processes such as pollution, organic matter fluxes, and water mass modification. Most recent research focuses on the Arctic Ocean and the use of organic geochemistry to trace environmental change.  He is currently funded in several NSF projects ranging from river biogeochemistry to water mass tracing in the Arctic, all of those projects are multinational and interdisciplinary. Amon has participated in numerous research expeditions to the Amazon River and the Arctic Ocean during his career.  Over the last 3 years, Amon was also successful in acquiring several major instrumentation grants from NSF to improve the analytical infrastructure and the undergraduate learning experience at TAMUG. More locally, Amon is a co-investigator to study the growth of E coli in Houston bayous by combining geochemistry with molecular ecology, a multiyear study funded by the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality. Amon’s teaching goal is to expose his students to multinational and interdisciplinary research as much as possible by including them in research cruises and international meetings and workshops.  In 2006 Amon organized an international workshop at the TAMU International Study Center in Santa Chiara, Italy involving several of his graduate and undergraduate students.

Research Interests

• Determination of bacterial activity in aquatic environments
• Source tracking for aquatic pathogens
• Chemical characterization of natural organic matter (source identification) by bulk, isotope, optical, and molecular level analyses
• Biogeochemical fluxes
• The global carbon cycle
• Interdisciplinary climate change research

Projects

• Biogeochemical tracers in Arctic rivers: Linking the Pan-Arctic watershed to the Arctic Ocean
• Tracing biogeochemical fluxes and water mass exchanges on the Eurasian shelves
• Acquisition of instruments to facilitate and enhance research projects and undergraduate education in aquatic environmental biogeochemistry at TAMUG
• Acquisition of instrumentation to facilitate and enhance research projects and undergraduate and graduate education in chemistry and environmental chemistry at TAMUG
• Population dynamics and origin of E. coli in Houston Bayous
• Collaborative research: Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and lignin phenols as tracers of water masses and biogeochemical processes in the Arctic Ocean

Experience

• 2007 – present - Associate Professor, Texas A&M University at Galveston               
• 2007 - present - Associate Professor, Texas A&M University at College Station as joined appointment in the Oceanography Department
• 2003 - 2007 - Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University at Galveston               
• 2003 - 2007 - Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University at College Station as joined appointment in the Oceanography Department                  
• 1999 - 2003 - Research scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany                
• 1996 - 1999 - Postdoctoral fellow at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Germany

Selected Publications

• Dagg M., Ammerman, J., Amon, R.M.W., Gardner, W., Green, R., and Lohrenz, S. 2007. A review of water column processes influencing hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Estuaries and Coasts, 30(5):735-752
• Benner, R., Louchouarn, P., and Amon, R.M.W. 2005. Terrigenous dissolved organic matter in the Arctic Ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 19: GB2025, doi:10.1029/2004GB002398.
• Amon, R.M.W. and Meon, B. 2004. The biogeochemistry of dissolved organic matter and nutrients in two large Arctic estuaries and potential implications for our understanding of the Arctic Ocean system. Mar. Chem., 92: 311-330.
• Meon, B. and Amon, R.M.W. 2004. Heterotrophic bacterial activity and fluxes of dissolved free amino acids (DFAA) and glucose in the Arctic Rivers Ob, Yenisei and the adjacent Kara Sea. Aquat. Microb. Ecol., 37: 121-135.
• Amon, R.M.W, G. Budeus, and Meon, B. 2003. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) distribution and origin in the Nordic Seas: Exchanges with the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic. J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans: Vol. 108, No. C7,3221,doi:10.1029/2002JC001594.
• Amon, R.M.W. and Benner, R. 2003. Combined neutral sugars as indicators of the diagenetic state of dissolved organic matter in the Arctic Ocean. Deep Sea Res.I, 50 (1): 151-169
• Köhler,H., Meon, B., Gordeev, V.V., Spitzy, A., and Amon,R.M.W. 2003. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the estuaries of Ob and Yenisei and the adjacent Kara-Sea, Russia. Proceedings in Marine Science, 6: 281-309
• Amon, R.M.W., Fitznar, H.P., and Benner, R. 2001. Linkages among bioreactivity, chemical composition, and diagenetic state of marine dissolved organic matter. Limnol. Oceanogr. 46: 287-297.
• Amon, R.M.W. and Benner, R. 1998. Seasonal patterns of bacterial abundance and production in the Mississippi River plume and their importance for the fate of enhanced primary production. Microbial Ecology, 35:289-300.
• Amon, R.M.W. and Benner, R. 1996. Bacterial utilization of different size classes of dissolved organic matter. Limnol. Oceanogr., 41/1:41-51
• Amon, R.M.W. and Benner, R. 1994. Rapid cycling of high-molecular-weight dissolved organic matter in the ocean. Nature, 369:549-552

Awards

• Theodor-Körner-Preis (Austrian Science Award), 1990
• Fulbright Fellowship, 1991
• Fulbright Fellowship, 1992
• J. C. Barton Fellowship, 1993 (University of Texas, Marine Science Institute)
• E.J. Lund Fellowship, 1994 (University of Texas, Marine Science Institute)
• International Research Travel Assistance Grant (Texas A&M University) 2004
• Pathways to the Doctorate Award (Texas A&M System) 2006

Links

• Personal web page