Research

Dr. Smoak's Research and Publications

Donny Smoak
Biogeochemistry
Professor, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1997
Phone: (727) 873-4078 (O), or (727) 873-4835 (Lab)

Dr. Smoak’s research involves uranium and thorium series radionuclides as tracers of geological processes; organic carbon burial in wetlands; mangrove ecosystem response to sea-level change.

Selected Publications

Breithaupt, J.L., Smoak, J.M.,  Rivera-Monroy, V.H., Castañeda-Moya, E., Moyer, R.P., Simard, M. and C.J. Sanders; Partitioning the relative contributions of organic matter and mineral sediment to accretion rates in carbonate platform mangrove soils, Marine Geology, 390, 170-180, 2017.

Gerlach, M.J., Engelhart, S.E., Kemp, A.C., Moyer, R.P., Smoak, J.M., Bernhardt, C.E. and N. Cahill; Reconstructing Common Era relative sea-level change on the gulf coast of Florida, Marine Geology, 390, 254-269, 2017.

Pérez, A., Machado, W., Gutierrez, D., Stokes, D., Sanders, L., Smoak, J.M., Santos, I. and C.J. Sanders; Changes in carbon sequestration driven by mangrove expansion and anthropogenic deforestation in a New Zealand estuary, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 192, 108-116, 2017.

Earley, S.M., Waters, M.N., Thieme, D. and J.M. Smoak; Linking biogeochemical processes and historic primary producer communities in a SE USA sinkhole lake from the mid-Holocene to present, Journal of Paleolimnology, 57, 295-306, 2017.

Sanders, L.M., Sanders, C.J., Taffs, K., Stokes, D., Smoak, J.M., Enrich-Prast, A., Macklin, P.A., Santos, I.R. and H. Marotta; Carbon accumulation in Amazonian floodplain lakes: A significant component of Amazon budgets?, Limnology and Oceanography Letters, 29-35, 2017.

Etemadi, H., Samadi, S., Sharifikia, M. and J.M. Smoak; Assessment of Climate Change downscaling and Non-stationarity on the Spatial Pattern of a Mangrove Ecosystem in an arid coastal region of southern Iran, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 126, 35-49, 2016.

Fortino, K., Whalen, S.C. and J.M. Smoak; Patterns in the sediment organic matter content of Arctic lakes, Hydrobiologia, 777, 149-160, 2016.

Wu, X., Zhao, L., Fang, H., Zhao, Y., Smoak, J.M., Pang, Q. and Y. Ding; Environmental controls on soil organic carbon and nitrogen stocks in the high-altitude arid western Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau permafrost region, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 176-187, 2016.

Sanders, C.J., Santos, I.R., Sanders, L., Maher, D.T., Mangion, P., Ruiz-Halpern, S., Oakes, J.M., Breithaupt, J.L, Smoak, J.M., Ketterer, M., Call, M., and B.D. Eyre; Examining 239+240Pu, 210Pb and historical events to determine carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus burial in mangrove sediments of Moreton Bay, Australia, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 623-629, 2016.

Smoak, J.M.; Sediment mixing rate, 210Pb and 234Th. In: Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods, eds. Rink, W.J. and J. Thompson, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2015.

Waters, M.N., Golladay, S.W., Patrick, C.H., Smoak, J.M. and S.D. Shivers; The potential effects of river regulation and watershed land-use on sediment characteristics and lake primary producers in a large reservoir, Hydrobiologia, 749, 15-30, 2015.

Liu, G., Liu, Z., , Smoak, J.M. and Gu, B.; The dynamics of Cladoceran assemblages in response to eutrophication and planktivorous fish introduction in Lake Chenghai, a plateau brackish lake, Quaternary International, 355, 188-193, 2015.

Breithaupt, J.L., Smoak, J.M., Smith, T.J. and C.J. Sanders, C.J.; Temporal variability of carbon and nutrient burial, sediment accretion, and mass accumulation over the past century in a carbonate platform mangrove forest of the Florida Everglades, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 119, 2032-2048, 2014.

Sanders, C.J., Eyre, B.D., Santos, I., Smoak, J.M., Breithaupt, J.L., Machado, W., Luiz-Silva, W., Sanders, L., Marrota, H. and E. Silva-Filho; Elevated rates of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus accumulation in a highly impacted mangrove wetland, Geophysical Research Letters, 41, 2475-2480, 2014.

Liu, G., Liu, Z., Gu, B., Smoak, J.M. and Z. Zhang; How important are trophic state, macrophyte and fish population effects on cladoceran community? A study in Lake Erhai, Hydrobiologia, 736, 189-204, 2014.

Harmon, T.S., Smoak, J.M., Waters, M.N. and C.J. Sanders; Hydrologic-Fragmentation Induced Eutrophication in Dove Sound, Upper Florida Keys, USA, Environmental Earth Sciences, 71, 4387-4395, 2014.

Sanders, C.J., Caldeira, P.P., Smoak, J.M., Ketterer, M.E., Belem, A., Mendoza, U.M.N., Cordeiro, L.G.M.S., Silva-Filho, E.V., Patchineelam, S.R. and A.L.S. Albuquerque; Recent organic carbon accumulation (~100 years) along the Cabo Frio, Brazil upwelling region, Continental Shelf Research 75: 68-75, 2014.

Troxler, T.G., with members of the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research Carbon Group including J.M. Smoak; Integrated carbon budget models for the Everglades terrestrial-coastal-oceanic gradient: current status and needs for inter-site comparisons, Oceanography 26: 98-107, 2013.

Liu, G., Liu, Z., Chen, F., Zhang, Z., Gu, B. and J.M. Smoak;  Response of Cladoceran community to eutrophication, fish introduction and degradation of macrophyte vegetation in Lake Dianchi, a large, shallow plateau lake in southwest China, Limnology 14, 159-166, 2013.

Smoak, J.M., Breithaupt, J., Smith III, T.J. and C.J. Sanders; Sediment accretion and
organic carbon burial relative to sea-level rise and storm events in two mangrove forest in Everglades National Park, Catena, 104, 58-66, 2013.

Waters, M.N., Smoak, J.M. and C.J. Saunders; Historic primary producer communities linked to phosphorus dynamics in the northern Florida Everglades, Journal of Paleolimnology 49, 67-81, 2013.

Smoak, J.M., Sanders, C.J., Patchineelam, S.R. and W.S. Moore; Radium mass balance and submarine groundwater discharge in Sepetiba Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 39, 44-51, 2012.

Breithaupt, J.L., Smoak, J.M., Smith, T.J., Sanders, C.J. and A. Hoare; Mangrove organic carbon burial rates: strengthening the global budget, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 26, GB3011, 2012.

Waters, M.N., Piehler, M.F., Smoak, J.M. and T.S. Bianchi; Historic algal community responses to dystrophication of a shallow lake, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 69(8), 1433-1443, 2012.

Sanders, C.J., Smoak, J.M., Waters, M. N. Sanders, L. M. Brandini, N., Patchineelam,S.R. Organic matter content and particle size modifications in mangrove sediments as responses to sea level rise, Marine Environmental Research, 77, 150-155, 2012.

Sanders, C. J., Smoak, J. M., Patchineelam, S. R. and P.H. Cable; Lead-210 and Berilium-7 fallout rates on the southeastern coast of Brazil, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 102, 1122-1125, 2011.

Patchineelam, S.M., Sanders, C.J., Smoak, J.M., Zem, R.C., Oliveira, G. and S.R.Patchineelam; A Historical Evaluation of Anthropogenic Impact in Coastal Ecosystems through Geochemical Signatures,Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society, 22(1), 120-125, 2011.

Sanders, C.J., Smoak, J.M., Sanders, L.M. and S.R. Patchineelam; Organic carbon accumulation in Brazilian Mangal Sediments, Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 30, 189-192, 2010.

Sanders, C.J., Smoak, J.M., Naidu, A.S., Sanders, L.M. and S.R. Patchineelam; Organic carbon burial in a mangrove forest, margin and intertidal mud flat; sedimentation and sea level rise, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 90, 168-172, 2010.

Waters, M.N., Piehler, M.F., Smoak, J.M. and C.S. Martens; The development and persistence of alternative ecosystem states in a large, shallow lake, Freshwater Biology, 55, 1249-1261, 2010.

Smoak, J.M.; Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus Mass Balance for the Amazon Continental Shelf. In: Carbon and Nutrient Fluxes in Continental Margins: A Global Synthesis, eds. K-K. Liu, L. Atkinson, R. Quinones and L. Talaue-McManus, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 443-449, 2010.

Sanders, C.J., Smoak, J.M., Naidu, A.S., Araripe, D.R. and S.R. Patchineelam; Mangrove forest sedimentation and its reference to sea level rise, Cananeia, Brazil, Environmental Earth Sciences, 60 (6), 1291-1301, 2010.

Sanders, C.J., Smoak, J.M., Sanders, L.M., Waters, M.N., Patchineelam, S.R. and M. E. Ketterer; Intertidal mangrove mudflat 240+239Pu signatures, confirming a 210Pb geochronology on the southeastern coast of Brazil, Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 283(3), 593-596, 2010.

Carvalho-Knighton, K.M. and J.M. Smoak; Integrating Basic Analytical Methods and Computer-interface Technology into an Environmental Science Water Quality Lab Improves Student Attitude, International Journal of Environmental & Science Education, 4(4), 419-428, 2009.

Liu, G., Liu, Z., Li, Y., Chen, F., Gu, B. and J.M. Smoak; Effects of Fish Introduction and Eutrophication on Cladoceran (especially Bosmina) Community Represented by Microfossils in Lake Fuxian, a Deep Oligotrophic Plateau Lake in Southwest China, Journal of Paleolimnology, 42(3), 427-435, 2009.

Waters, M.N., Piehler, M.F., Rodriguez, A.B., Smoak, J.M. and T.S. Bianchi; Shallow lake trophic status linked to late Holocene climate and human impacts, Journal of Paleolimnology, 42(1), 51-64, 2009.

Whitmore, T.J., Riedinger-Whitmore, M.A., Smoak, J.M., Goddard, E.A. and J. Escobar; Arsenic Contamination of Lake Sediments in Highlands County Florida: Evidence of Herbicide Mobility from Watershed Soils, Journal of Paleolimnology, 40(3), 869-884, 2008.

Sanders, C.J., Smoak, J.M., Naidu, A.S. and S.R. Patchineelam; Recent Sediment Accumulation in a Mangrove Forest and Its Relevance to Local Sea-Level Rise (Ilha Grande, Brazil), Journal of Coastal Research, 24(2), 533-536, 2008.

Brenner, M., Smoak, J.M., Leeper, D.A., Streubert, M. and S.M. Baker; Radium-226 Accumulation in Florida Freshwater Mussels, Limnology and Oceanography, 52(4), 1614-1623, 2007.

Smoak, J.M. and J.M. Krest; Source of radium to a well-water-augmented Florida lake, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 89, 102-114, 2006.

Smoak, J.M., Krest, J.M. and P.W. Swarzenski; Geochemistry of the Amazon Estuary. In: Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, Vol. 5, Part H, ed. P.J. Wangersky, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 71-90, 2006.

Whitmore, T.J., Brenner, M., Kolasa, K.V., Kenney, W.F., Riedinger-Whitmore, M.A., Curtis, J. and J.M. Smoak; Inadvertent alkalization of a Florida lake caused by increased nutrient and solute loading to its watershed, Journal of Paleolimnology 36, 353-370, 2006.

DeArmond, B.S., Brenner, M., Kenney, W.F., Leeper, D.A., Smoak, J.M., Curtis, J.H., Shumate, B.C. and D.G. Buck. Radium-226 accumulation in sediments of a groundwater-augmented lake near Tampa, Florida, USA. Verh. Internat. Verein. Limnol. 29, 1275-1279, 2006.

Riedinger-Whitmore, M.A., Whitmore, T.J., Smoak, J.M., Brenner, M., Moore, A., Curtis, J. and C.L. Schelske; Cyanobacterial proliferation is a recent response to eutrophication in many Florida lakes: A paleolimnological assessment, Lake and Reservoir Management 21, 423-435, 2005.

Smoak, J.M. and P.W. Swarzenski; Recent increases in sediment and nutrient accumulation in Bear Lake, Utah/Idaho, USA, Hydrobiologia 525, 175-184, 2004.

Smoak, J. M., Benitez-Nelson, C., Moore, W. S., Thunell, R.C., Astor, Y. and F. Muller-Karger; Radionuclide fluxes and particle scavenging in Cariaco Basin, Continental Shelf Research 24, 1451-1463, 2004.

Swarzenski, P.W., Porcelli, D., Anderson, P.S. and J.M. Smoak; The Behaviour of U- and Th-Series Nuclides in the Estuarine Environment, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 52, 577-606, 2003.

Smoak, J. M., Moore, W. S. and R. C. Thunell; Influence of Boundary Scavenging and Sediment Focusing on 234Th, 228Th and 210Pb Fluxes in the Santa Barbara Basin, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 51, 373-384, 2000.

Brenner, M., Smoak, J. M., Allen, M. S., Schelske, C. L. and D. Leeper; Biological Accumulation of 226Ra in a Groundwater-Augmented Florida Lake, Limnology and Oceanography 45, 710-715, 2000. (corresponding author)

Swarzenski, P. W., Corbett, D. R., Smoak, J. M. and B. A. McKee; The use of U-Th Series Radionuclides and Transient Tracers in Oceanography: An Overview. In: Chemistry in the Marine Environment, ed. R.E. Hester and R.M. Harrison, Issues in Environmental Science and Technology Number 13, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK, 33-53, 2000.

Patchineelam, S. R. and J. M. Smoak; Sediment Accumulation Rates Along the Inner Eastern Brazilian Continental Shelf, Geo-Marine Letters 19, 196-201, 1999.

Smoak, J. M., Moore, W. S., Thunell, R. C. and T. J. Shaw; Comparison of 234Th, 228Th and 210Pb Fluxes With Fluxes of Major Sediment Components in the Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California, Marine Chemistry 65, 177-194, 1999.

Smoak, J. M. and S. R. Patchineelam; Sediment Mixing and Accumulation in a Mangrove Ecosystem: Evidence From 210Pb, 234Th and 7Be, Mangroves and Salt Marshes 3, 17-27, 1999.

Shaw, T. J., Smoak, J. M. and L. Lauerman; Scavenging of 234Th, 230Th and 210Pb by Particulate Matter in the Deep Waters of the California Continental Margin, Deep-Sea Research, Part II 45, 763-779, 1998.

Lauerman, L. M. L., Smoak, J. M., Shaw, T. J., Moore, W. S. and K. L. Smith Jr.; 234Th and 210Pb Evidence for Rapid Ingestion of Settling Particles by Mobile Epibenthic Megafauna in the Abyssal NE Pacific, Limnology and Oceanography 42, 589-595, 1997.

Smoak, J. M., DeMaster, D. J., Kuehl, S. A., Pope, R. H., and B. A. McKee; The Behavior of Particle-Reactive Tracers in a High Turbidity Environment: 234Th and 210Pb on the Amazon Continental Shelf, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 60, 2123-2137, 1996.

Moore, W. S., DeMaster, D. J., Smoak, J. M., McKee, B. A. and P. W. Swarzenski; Radionuclide Tracers of Sediment-Water Interaction on the Amazon Shelf, Continental Shelf Research 16, 645-665, 1996.

DeMaster, D. J., Pope, R. H., Smoak, J. M., Nittrouer, C. A. and G. H. Pierson; The Accumulation and Regeneration of Biogenic Silica and Organic Carbon in the Ross Sea Sediments, Antarctic Journal of the U. S. 27, 74-76, 1992.

Projects

1. Response of ecosystem function in mangrove forests to sea-level rise and climate change, funded by U.S. Fish and Wildlife / State Wildlife Grants Program / Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, 2013-2016.

2. Collaborative Research:  Robust decision-making for South Florida water resources by ecosystem service valuation, hydro-economic optimization, and conflict resolution modeling, funded by National Science Foundation, 2013-2017.

Courses

Dr. Smoak teaches physical geology, beaches and coastal environments and Global Climate Change.