IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco

Peter Swarzenski is the Section Head of the Radioecology Laboratory (REL), one of the IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco. At REL, Swarzenski guides cutting edge research on diverse stressors to coastal and marine ecosystems that span from Climate Change impacts (i.e., temperature and pH) to biotoxins work, to contaminant – food web transfer studies, and to the marine carbon cycle. A current emphasis is on subtle, synergistic effects of ocean acidification and hypoxia on commercially important marine organisms. Prior to joining the IAEA, Swarzenski worked for close to two decades as a research oceanographer for the U.S. Geological Survey in Santa Cruz, California and St Petersburg, Florida, where he studied marine biogeochemical processes. Some recent projects have addressed climate-change impacts to Pacific atolls, coastal groundwater exchange, and Alaskan permafrost. Swarzenski applies a variety of tools and techniques in his research, including U/Th-series radionuclide tracers and electrical geophysical methods, and has published close to 200 papers on related topics that span Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.