Melisa Diaz
Appointment
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar 2025-2027
Earth 4D: Subsurface Science & Exploration
About
Melisa Diaz examines how icy landscapes in the Arctic and Antarctic change over time and how they interact with the subsurface, atmosphere, ocean, and ecosystems. By analyzing the geochemical composition of ice, water, and soil, her team investigates how nutrients and salts cycle through polar environments. Additionally, she studies how climate change impacts polar ecosystems, including how warming temperatures and shifting ice dynamics affect nutrient delivery and bioavailability. This research is essential for understanding how life adapts to the extreme conditions found in polar regions. By focusing on these remote areas, Melisa aims to uncover crucial insights into the functioning of Earth’s polar regions, providing valuable information on the role of the cryosphere in understanding habitability on Earth and elsewhere in the Solar System.
Awards
- Provost's Early Career Scholar Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University, 2024
- Postdoctoral Scholar, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2020
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2017
Relevant Publications
- Diaz, M.A., Adams, B.J., Welch, K.A., Welch, S.A., Opiyo, S., Khan, A.L., McKnight, D.M., Cary, S.C., Lyons, W.B. (2018). Aeolian Material Transport and its Role in Landscape Connectivity in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. DOI: 10.1029/2017JF004589.
- Diaz, M.A., Li, J., Michalski, G., Adams, B.J., Wall, D.H., Hogg, I., Fierer, N., Welch, S.A., Gardner, C.B., Lyons, W.B. (2020). Stable isotopes of nitrate, sulfate, and carbonate in soils from the Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica: A record of atmospheric deposition and chemical weathering. Frontiers in Earth Science special issue: Novel Isotope Systems and Biogeochemical Cycling During Cryospheric Weathering in Polar Environments 8(341). https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00341.
- Dragone, N.B., Diaz, M.A., Hogg, I., Lyons, W.B., Jackson, W.A., Wall, D.H., Adams, B.J., Fierer, N. (2021). Exploring the boundaries of microbial habitability in soil. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 126(5): e2020JG006052. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JG006052. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.03.234583.