Thank you for visiting my web page. I’m an applied wetlands ecologist and use an integrated field and modeling approach to study the effects of climate change, in general, and rising sea-levels specifically, on coastal systems. I’m especially interested in modeling the non-linear feedbacks that allow coastal wetlands to maintain a dynamic equilibrium with sea-level. I use those models to predict the resiliency of estuarine systems to rising water levels and to guide the course of restoration and mitigation efforts. This work has led to our recent efforts to quantify rates of carbon sequestration and calculate carbon budgets for coastal wetlands in the Pacific Northwest.

In our laboratory, we operate two broad-energy germanium gamma ray detectors which we use to measure rates of sediment accretion using continuous gamma emitters Pb-210 and Cs-137.  We have a limited capacity to run samples or collaborate with investigators who require such instrumentation.  Please contact me for more details.

I currently have a full contingent of students in my lab and I am not planning on taking on a new grad student for the fall of 2023.

John Rybczyk
Professor and Academic Director, Marine and Coastal Science

Department of Environmental Science
Western Washington University
john.rybczyk@wwu.edu