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Marjorie S Schulz

Marjorie Schulz (Jorie) is a scientist emeritus with the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center. Since joining the USGS in 1987, Jorie has worked in several USGS programs; Marine Geology, the National Research Program of Water Resources, and now GMEGSC.

Jorie does multidisciplinary work built on a foundation in geology. She now describes herself as a biogeochemist with a bit of soil science. Her work has included research on manganese deposits on the ocean floor, mineral weathering, soil development, and geochemistry. Jorie is currently studying the interaction of organic matter (carbon) with soil minerals to understand the processes that stabilize soil carbon.

 

Professional Experience

  • 2018 - present, Research Physical Scientist, GMEG, USGS Menlo Park, CA

  • 1991 - 2018, Research Hydrologist, WMA NRP, USGS, Menlo Park, CA

  • 1987 - 1991, Geologist, GD Marine Geology, USGS Menlo Park, CA

Education and Certifications

  • M.S., Earth Science (Sedimentology), University of Missouri-Columbia, 1990

  • B.A., Geology, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, 1979

Affiliations and Memberships*

  • American Geophysical Union

  • Geological Society of America

  • Association for Women Geoscientists

  • Soil Science Society of America

Science and Products

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Scanning electron microscope image of soil biofilm

Biogeochemistry of the Critical Zone: Origin and Fate of Organic Matter

Changing temperature, precipitation, and land use intensification has resulted in global soil degradation. The accompanying loss of soil organic matter (SOM) decreases important soil health services. Soil organic matter is a major global pool of carbon; if SOM can be increased, soils can mitigate elevated atmospheric CO2. However, there are major knowledge gaps in SOM persistence. This project...
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Climate Research and Development Program, Earth Systems Biogeochemistry Laboratory
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Biogeochemistry of the Critical Zone: Origin and Fate of Organic Matter

Changing temperature, precipitation, and land use intensification has resulted in global soil degradation. The accompanying loss of soil organic matter (SOM) decreases important soil health services. Soil organic matter is a major global pool of carbon; if SOM can be increased, soils can mitigate elevated atmospheric CO2. However, there are major knowledge gaps in SOM persistence. This project...
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Filter Total Items: 44

The influence of soil development on the depth distribution and structure of soil microbial communities.

Although it has been shown that the interaction of climate and time shape the dynamics of soil organic matter (SOM) storage and preservation in soil, the role of soil microbial communities in this dynamic remains unclear. Microbial communities are present throughout soil profiles and likely play critical roles in SOM and nutrient cycling, however the influence of other factors such as soil develop
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Climate Research and Development Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Biofilms in the Critical Zone: Distribution and mediation of processes

Microbial biofilms occur in all levels of the Critical Zone (CZ); they are on and in the vegetation, throughout the soil-saprolite zone, and along fractures in deep subsurface. Here we discuss biofilms in each level of the CZ with a focus in the soil-saprolite continuum. We show how scanning electron microscope (SEM) images provide an appropriate scale to explore microbe mineral interactions in th
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Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Mechanisms for retention of low molecular weight organic carbon varies with soil depth at a coastal prairie ecosystem

Though primary sources of carbon (C) to soil are plant inputs (e.g., rhizodeposits), the role of microorganisms as mediators of soil organic carbon (SOC) retention is increasingly recognized. Yet, insufficient knowledge of sub-soil processes complicates attempts to describe microbial-driven C cycling at depth as most studies of microbial-mineral-C interactions focus on surface horizons. We leverag
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Volcano Hazards, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Volcano Science Center

The trajectory of soil development and its relationship to soil carbon dynamics

It has been postulated that the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) associated with soil minerals exhibits a threshold relationship in response to effective soil moisture (estimated as precipitation less evapotranspiration). To better characterize the role of moisture in influencing mechanisms of SOC storage during pedogenesis, we compare soils from two different chronosequence sites: the Santa Cr
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Volcano Hazards, Volcano Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Response to ‘Stochastic and deterministic interpretation of pool models’

We concur with Azizi‐Rad et al. (2021) that it is vital to critically evaluate and compare different soil carbon models, and we welcome the opportunity to further describe the unique contribution of the PROMISE model (Waring et al. 2020) to this literature. The PROMISE framework does share many features with established biogeochemical models, as our original manuscript highlighted in Table 1, and
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Ecosystems, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Southwest Biological Science Center

From pools to flow: The PROMISE framework for new insights on soil carbon cycling in a changing world

Soils represent the largest terrestrial reservoir of organic carbon, and the balance between soil organic carbon (SOC) formation and loss will drive powerful carbon‐climate feedbacks over the coming century. To date, efforts to predict SOC dynamics have rested on pool‐based models, which assume classes of SOC with internally homogenous physicochemical properties. However, emerging evidence suggest
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Ecosystems, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Southwest Biological Science Center

Root-driven weathering impacts on mineral-organic associations in deep soils over pedogenic time scales

Plant roots are critical weathering agents in deep soils, yet the impact of resulting mineral transformations on the vast deep soil carbon (C) reservoir are largely unknown. Root-driven weathering of primary minerals may cause the formation of reactive secondary minerals, which protect mineral-organic associations (MOAs) for centuries or millennia. Conversely, root-driven weathering may also trans
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Water Resources, Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Mineralogy dictates the initial mechanism of microbial necromass association

Soil organic matter (SOM) improves soil fertility and mitigates disturbance related to climate and land use change. Microbial necromass (the accumulated cellular residues of microorganisms) comprises the majority of soil C, yet the formation and persistence of necromass in relation to mineralogy is poorly understood. We tested whether soil minerals had different microbial necromass association mec
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Geochemistry and microbiology of groundwater and solids from extraction and monitoring wells and their relation to well efficiency at a Federally operated confined disposal facility, East Chicago, Indiana

In cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District, the U.S. Geological Survey investigated the processes affecting water quality, geochemistry, and microbiology in representative extraction and monitoring wells at a confined disposal facility (CDF) in East Chicago, Indiana. The CDF is a 140-acre Federally-managed facility that was the former location of an oil refinery and is
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Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center

Landscapes from the waves—Marine terraces of California

Many coastlines around the world have stair-step landforms, known as marine terraces. Marine terraces make up a large part of coastal California’s landscape—from San Diego to Crescent City. Find out how these landscapes form, why marine terraces are of interest to scientists, and where you can explore these landscapes.
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Water Resources

Lithological influences on contemporary and long-term regolith weathering at the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory

Lithologic differences give rise to the differential weatherability of the Earth’s surface and globally variable silicate weathering fluxes, which provide an important negative feedback on climate over geologic timescales. To isolate the influence of lithology on weathering rates and mechanisms, we compare two nearby catchments in the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory in Puerto Rico, which have s
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Water Resources, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program

Long-term flow-through column experiments and their relevance to natural granitoid weathering rates

Four pairs of fresh and partly-weathered granitoids, obtained from well-characterized watersheds—Merced River, CA, USA; Panola, GA, USA; Loch Vale, CO, USA, and Rio Icacos, Puerto Rico—were reacted in columns under ambient laboratory conditions for 13.8 yrs, the longest running experimental weathering study to date. Low total column mass losses (
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Water Resources, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program
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Science and Products

*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government