Research Focus

• environmental cycles of major and trace elements
• sediment diagenesis and stratigraphy
• chemistry of natural organic matter
• wetland biogeochemistry
• environmental impact and fate of pollutants
• influence of organisms on the chemical environment
• role of chemical environment in controlling populations

• Laurentian Great Lakes

Educational Focus

• undergraduate courses in surface water quality
• graduate courses in biogeochemistry

• Urban, NR, MT Auer, SA Green, D Apul, L Bub, KD Elenbaas, X Lu, 2005, Carbon cycling in L. Superior, J. Geophys. Res., 110(C6): doi: 10.1029/2003JC002230 C06S90.
• Urban, NR, Apul, D.S., Auer, MT, 2004, Planktonic Respiration Rates in Lake Superior, J. Great Lakes Res., 30(Suppl. 1):230-244.
• Urban, NR, Y Chai, J Jeong, 2004, The benthic nepheloid layer (BNL) north of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior: composition, dynamics, and role in sediment transport, J. Great Lakes Research., 30(Suppl. 1):133-146.
• Urban, NR, X. Lu, Y. Chai, D. Apul, 2004, Sediment trap studies in Lake Superior: Insights into resuspension, cross-margin transport and carbon cycling, J. Great Lakes Research, 30 (Suppl. 1):147-161.
• Chai, Y, NR Urban, 2004, 210Po and 210Pb distributions and disequilibria in the near-shore region of Lake Superior, J. Geophys. Res., VOL. 109, C10S07, doi:10.1029/2003JC002081, 2004.
• Russ, ME, Ostrom, NE, Ostrom, PH, Gandhi, H, Urban, NR, 2004, Temporal and spatial variations in R:P ratios in Lake Superior, an oligotrophic freshwater environment, J. Geophys. Res. 109(C10), DOI:10.1029/2003JC001890, C10S12.
• Churchill, JH, Ralph, EA, Cates, AM, Budd, JR, Urban, NR, 2003, Observations of a negatively buoyant river plume in a large lake, Limnol. Oceanogr. 48(2): 884-894.

• Humboldt Foundation Fellowship, Univ. Bayreuth, 1994