Deborah K. Steinberg is an American
Antarctic biological
oceanographer who works on interdisciplinary oceanographic research programs.[1][2] Steinberg's research focuses on the role that
zooplankton play in marine
food webs and the global
carbon cycle, and how these small drifting animals are affected by changes in climate.[3][4]
Steinberg has been an international leader in understanding the zooplankton and
jellyfish ecology along with how the food web structures the
flux of carbon to the deep sea. Since 2008,[update] she has worked at Palmer Station within the US
National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research (
LTER) program focusing on understanding how rapid warming drives ecosystem change.[8]
Her research program focuses on how zooplankton influence
cycling of nutrients and organic matter, and how climate affects long-term change in zooplankton communities. Steinberg's laboratory has been involved in a number of projects with this theme, including the role of zooplankton
vertical migration in transport of nutrients, the ecology of gelatinous zooplankton "blooms" and their effect on fluxes of organic matter, the importance of zooplankton in the cycling of dissolved organic matter,
mesopelagic zooplankton and particle flux, and the effects of
mesoscale eddies and a large river plume on zooplankton community structure.[6] They are also using long-term data sets from the Western
Antarctic Peninsula and the
Sargasso Sea off Bermuda to study the effects of climate change on zooplankton communities, and how these community changes may affect ocean food webs and
biogeochemistry.[1][9]
Steinberg has spent collectively more than 1.5 years at sea on more than 50 research cruises, and starred in the documentary "Antarctic Edge: 70° South.[15][16]
Projects
Long Term Ecological Research Network: Land-shelf-ocean connectivity, ecosystem resilience, and transformation in a sea-ice influenced pelagic ecosystem (NSF OPP)[17]
Steinberg, Deborah K., et al. "Overview of the US JGOFS Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS): a decade-scale look at ocean biology and biogeochemistry." Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 48.8 (2001): 1405-1447.
Steinberg, Deborah A., et al. "Protegrin-1: a broad-spectrum, rapidly microbicidal peptide with in vivo activity." Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 41.8 (1997): 1738-1742.
Steinberg, Deborah K., et al. "Zooplankton vertical migration and the active transport of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon in the Sargasso Sea." Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 47.1 (2000): 137-158.
^"Overview of BATS". Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study. Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science. Archived from
the original on 24 May 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016.