Edward Laws

Position: Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences

Phone: 225-578-8800

Fax: 225-578-4286

E-mail: [email protected] 

Office: 3141 Energy, Coast and Environment Building

Bachelor's Degree(s): B.A. Chemistry, Harvard University, 1967

Ph.D.(s): Ph.D. Chemical Physics, Harvard University, 1972

Research Interests

phytoplankton ecology, water pollution, climate change 

Classes Taught

ENVS 3102 Mathematical Methods in Science

ENVS 1126 Introduction to Environmental Science

OCS 4126 Chemical Oceanography

GEOL 4082 Chemical Oceanography

Selected Publications

Books

Laws, E. A. 1997. Mathematical Methods for Oceanographers: An Introduction. Wiley-Interscience. New York. 343 pp.

Laws, E. A. 2018. Aquatic Pollution: An Introductory Text. 4th edition. Wiley-Interscience. New York. 740 pp.

Refereed Articles

Laws, E.A., and T.T. Bannister. 1980.  Nutrient and light-limited growth of Thalassiosira fluviatilis in continuous culture, with implications for phytoplankton growth in the ocean.  Limnology and Oceanography 25: 457-473.

Smith, S.V., W.J. Kimmerer, E.A. Laws, R.E. Brock, and T.M. Walsh. 1981.  Kaneohe Bay sewage diversion experiment: Perspectives on ecosystem responses to nutritional perturbation. Pacific Science 35: 279-395.

Laws, E.A., and J.W. Archie. 1981.  Appropriate use of regression analysis in marine biology.  Marine Biology 65: 13-16.

Betzer, P.R., W.J. Showers, E.A. Laws, C.D. Winn, G.R. DiTullio, and P.M. Kroopnick. 1984.  Primary productivity and particle fluxes on a transect of the equator at 153oW in the Pacific Ocean.  Deep-Sea Research 31: 1-11.

Laws, E.A., D.G. Redalje, L.W. Haas, P.K. Bienfang, R.W. Eppley, W.G. Harrison, D.M. Karl, and J. Marra. 1984.  High phytoplankton growth and production rates in oligotrophic Hawaiian coastal waters.  Limnology and Oceanography 29: 1161-1169.

Laws, E.A. 1991. Photosynthetic quotients, new production, and net community production in the open ocean. Deep-Sea Research 38: 143-167.

Laws, E. A., B. N. Popp, R. R. Bidigare, M. C. Kennicutt II, and S. A. Macko. 1995.  Dependence of phytoplankton carbon isotopic composition on growth rate and [CO2]aq:  Theoretical considerations and experimental results. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 59: 1131-1138.

Bidigare, R. R., A. Fluegge, K. H. Freeman, K. L. Hanson, J. M. Hayes, D. Hollander, J. P. Jasper, L. L. King. E. A. Laws, J. Milder, F. J. Millero, R. Pancost, B. N. Popp, P. A. Steinberg, and S. G. Wakeham. 1997. Consistent fractionation of 13C in nature and in the laboratory: Growth-rate effects in some haptophyte algae.  Global Biogeochemical Cycles 11: 279-292.

Laws, E. A., P. G. Falkowski, W. O. Smith, H. Ducklow, and J. J. McCarthy. 2000. Temperature effects on export production in the open ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 14(4): 1231–1246.

Hood, R. R., E. A. Laws, R. Armstrong, N. Bates, C. W. Brown, C. Carlson, F. Chai, S. Doney, H. Ducklow, P. Falkowski, R. A. Feely, M. Friedrichs, M. Landry, J. K. Moore, D. Nelson, T. Richardson, B. Salihoglu, M. Schartau, and J. D. Wiggert. 2006.  Pelagic Functional Group Modeling: Progress, Challenges and Prospects. Deep-Sea Research II 53(5-7): 459-512.

Moore, S. K., V. L. Trainer, N. J. Mantua, M. C. Parker, L. A. Backer, L. E. Fleming, and E. A. Laws. 2008. Impacts of climate variability and future climate change on harmful algal blooms and human health. Environmental Health 7(Suppl 2):  S4 doi:10.1 186/1476-069X-7-S2-S4.

Zhang, X-J, Ding, J-G, Hou, A., Li, Y., Niu, Z-B, Su, X-Y, Xu, Y-J, and E. A. Laws. 2010. The 2007 water crisis in Wuxi, China:  analysis of the origin. Journal of Hazardous Materials 182(1–3): 130–135.

Recent Publications

He, L., A. Amorosi, S. Ye, C. Xue, S. Yang, and E. A. Laws. 2020. River avulsions and sedimentary evolution of the Luanhe fan-delta system (North China) since the late Pleistocene. Marine Geology 425. Article 106194.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2020.106194

Zhao, G., S. Ye, L. Hei, H. Yuan, X. Ding, J. Wang,  and E. A. Laws. 2020. Historical change of carbon burial in Late Quaternary sediments of the ancient Yellow River Delta on the west coast of Bohai Bay, China. Catena 193. article 104619.

Laws, E. A., S. A. McClellan, and U. Passow. 2020. Interactive effects of CO2, temperature, irradiance, and nutrient limitation on the growth and physiology of the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana (Coscinodiscophyceae). J. Phycol.

Ye, S., Q. Lu, L. Pei, E. A. Laws, and H. Brix. 2020 A negative feedback of ecosystem to soil organic matter decomposition can be achieved in the coastal wetlands of the Liaohe Delta, Northeast China. Wetlands (accepted for publication).

Zhong, Y., Liu, X., Xiao, W., Laws, E. A., Chen, J., Wang, L., Liu, S., Zhang, F., Huang, B. (2020). Phytoplankton community patterns in the Taiwan Strait matche the characteristics of their realized niches. Progress in Oceanography, 186, Article 102366.

Sun, P., Wang, Y., Laws, E. A. (2020). Water mass–driven spatial effects and environmental heterogeneity shape microeukaryote biogeography in a subtropical, hydrographically complex ocean system - A case study of ciliates. Science of the Total Environment, 706, 135753.

Zhao, G., Ye, S., Laws, E. A. (2019). Carbon burial records during the last ~40,000 years in sediments of Liaohe Delta wetland, China. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science, 226, article number UNSP 106291.

Grabowski, E., Letelier, R., Laws, E., Karl, D. (2019). Coupling carbon and energy fluxes in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Nature Communications.

Grant, S., Church, M., Ferron, S., Laws, E. A., Rappe, M. (2019). Elemental composition, Phosphorus Uptake, and Characteristics of Growth of a SAR11 Strain in Batch and Continuous Culture. mSystems, 4(4), e00218-18.

Yang, S., Song, B., Ye, S., He, L., Li, J., Laws, E. A. (2019). Large-scale pollen distribution in marine surface sediments from North China: insights into pollen provenance, transport, deposition, and coastal-shelf paleoenvironment. Progress in Oceanography, 178, 102183.

Pei, S., Laws, E. A. (2019). Nutrient dynamics and their interaction with phytoplankton growth during autumn in Liaodong Bay, China. Continental Shelf Research, 186, 34-47.

Yang, S., Laws, E. A., Liu, K., Ye, S. (2019). Regional-scale distributions of pollen and spore assemblages in alluviums around the Bohai Sea: an essential step towards understanding marine palynological sources in China. Marine Geology, 415.

Xiao, W., Laws, E. A. (2019). Responses of marine phytoplaniton communities to environmental changes: New insights from a niche classification scheme. Water Research, 166115070.

Huang, Y., Laws, E. A. (2019). Stimulation of heterotrophic and autotrophic metabolism in the mixing zone of the Kuroshio Current and northern South China Sea: implications for export production. Journal of Geopphysical Research: Biogeosciences, 124, 2645–2661.

Ye, S., Ding, X., Laws, E. A. (2019). The concentration distribution and potential ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in surface sediments of the Bohai Bay, China. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110497

Laws, E. A., Maiti, K. (2019). The relationship between primary production and export production in the ocean: effects of time lags and temporal variability. Deep-Sea Research, 148, 100–107.

Liu, X., Laws, E., Xie, Y., Wang, L., Lin, L., Huang, B. (2019). Uncoupling of seasonal variations between phytoplankton chlorophyll a and production in the East China Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 124(7), 2400-2415.

Reyes-Avila, A., Laws, E., Herrmann, A., DeLaune, R., Blanchard, T. (2019). Mercury and selenium levels, and Se:Hg molar ratios in freshwater fish from south Louisiana. Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A, 54(3), 238–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/10934529.2018.1546495

Zhong, Y., Hu, J., Laws, E. A., Liu, X., Chen, J., Huang, B. (2019). Plankton community responses to pulsed upwelling events in the southern Taiwan Strait. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 76(7), 2374–2388.

He, L., Xue, C., Ye, S., Amorosi, A., Yuan, H., Yang, S., Laws, E. A. (2019). New evidence on the spatial-temporal distribution of superlobes in the Yellow River Delta Complex. Quaternary Science Reviews, 214, 117–138.

Yang, S., Ye, S., Laws, E. A. (2018). Environmental changes and human activity since the Neolithic: Evidence from pollen and phytoliths in Hochung, Sai Kung area, Hong Kong. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 258, 36–47.

Xue, C., Qin, Y., Ye, S., Laws, E. A. (2018). Evolution of Holocene ebb-tidal clinoform off Shandong Peninsula, provenance and dispersal of Yellow River derived sediments in the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea. Earth-Science Reviews, 177, 474-496.

He, L., Xue, C., Ye, S., Laws, E. A., Yuan, H., Yang, S., Du, X. (2018). Holocene evolution of the Liaohe delta formed by multiple rivers in northeast China. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 152, 52-68.

Johnson, T., Laws, E. A. (2018). Impacts of hurricanes on wetland phytoplankton communities in the Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 6(1), 37-42.

Xiao, W., Wang, L., Laws, E. A., Xie, Y., Chen, J., Liu, X., Chen, B. (2018). Realized niche-based traits explain phytoplankton community distributions in a tropical-subtropical marginal sea. Progress in Oceanography, 162, 223-239.

Pei, S., Laws, E. A., Zhang, H., Ye, S., Kemper, M. T., Yuan, H., Zhu, Y., Xu, G., Yang, S., Liu, H., Zhu, Y. (2018). Study on chemical hydrography, chlorophyll-a and primary productivity in Liaodong Bay, China. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 202, 103-113.

Qiu, Y., Laws, E. A., Laws, E. A., Wang, L., Liu, X., Huang, B. (2018). The potential contributions of phytoplankton cells and zooplankton fecal pellets to POC export fluxes during a spring bloom in the East China Sea. Continental Shelf Research, 167, 32–45.

Xiao, W., Liu, X., Irwin, A., Laws, E. A., Wang, L., Chen, B., Zeng, Y., Huang, B. (2018). Warming and eutrophication combine to restructure diatoms and dinoflagellates. Water Research, 128, 206-216.

Laws, E. (2018). The 1987–1989 phytoplankton bloom in Kaneohe Bay. Water, 10(6), 747-760. 402 Lee Drive #6C

Laws, E. A. (2018). Surface sediment properties and heavy metal contamination assessment in river sediments of the Pearl River, China. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 136, 300–308.

Laws, E. (2018). Anticyclonic eddy edge effects on phytoplankton communities and particle export in the northern South China Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans, 123(11), 7632–7650. 402 Lee Drive #6C

Laws, E. (2018). Diel patterns of variable fluorescence and carbon fixation of picocyanobacteria Prochlorococcus-dominated phytoplankton in the South China Sea basin. Frontiers in Microbiology, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01589(doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01589), doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01589. 402 Lee Drive #6C

Laws, E. A. (2018). Relative contributions of Halobacteriovorax and Bacteriophage to Bacterial Cell Death under various Environmental Conditions. Elsevier, 9(4), doi:10.1128/mBio.01202-18. no address

Laws, E. A. (2018). The potential contributions of phytoplankton cells and zooplankton fecal pellets to POC export fluxes during a spring bloom in the East China Sea. Continental Shelf Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2018.08.001

Laws, E. (2018). Using a trait-based approach to optimize mixotrophic growth of the red microalga Porphyridium purpureum towards fatty acid production. Biotechnology for Biofuels. DOI: 10.1186/s13068-018-1277-7

Ye, S., Laws, E. A., Yuknis, N., Ding, X., Yuan, H., Zhao, G., Wang, J., Yu, X. Y., Pei, S., Brix, H. (2017). Carbon sequestration and its controlling factors in the temperate wetland communities along the Bohai Sea, China. Marine and Freshwater Research. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF17120. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF17120

Li, J., Bidigare, R. R., Laws, E. A. (2017). Effects of Macondo oil on phytoplankton from Grand Isle, Louisiana. Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology, 7(3).

Chen, B., Laws, E. A. (2017). Is there a difference of temperature sensitivity between marine phytoplankton and heterotrophs? Limnology and Oceanography, 62(2), 806-817.

Norris, B., Laws, E. A. (2017). Nutrient concentrations and phytoplankton community composition in a shallow, hypereutrophic, urban lake prior to dredging. Water, 9, 431-442.

Pei, S., Laws, E. A., Zhang, H., Ye, S., Yuan, H., Liu, H. (2017). Patchiness of phytoplankton and primary production in Liaodong Bay, China. PLoS ONE.

Xu, N. M., Wu, Y., Zheng, L. W., Zheng, Z., Zhao, H., Laws, E. A., Kao, S. (2017). Quantification of multiple simultaneously occurring nitrogen flows in the euphotic ocean. Biogeosciences, 14, 1021-1038.

Liu, J., Ye, S., Yuan, H., Ding, X., Zhao, G., Yang, S., He, L., Wang, J., Laws, E. A. (2017). Sedimentary environment evolution and biogenic silica records over 30,000 years in the Liaohe Delta, China. Limnology and Oceanography, 62(2), 474-489.

Wang, J., Ye, S., Laws, E. A., Yuan, H., Ding, X., Zhao, G. (2017). Surface sediment properties and heavy metal pollution assessment in the Shallow Sea Wetland of the Liaodong Bay, China. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 120, 347-354.

Ye, S., Laws, E. A., Costanza, R., Brix, H. (2016). Ecosystem service value for the common reed wetlands in the Liaohe Delta, Northeast China. Open Journal of Ecology, 6, 129-137.

Laws, E. A., Bidigare, R. R., Karl, D. M. (2016). Enigmatic relationship between chlorophyll a concentrations and photosynthetic rates at Station ALOHA. Heliyon 2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2016.e00156Williams, H. N., Lymperopoulou, D. S., Athar, R., Chauhan, A., Dickerson, T. L., Chen, H., Laws, E. A., Berhane, T., Flowers, A., Badley, N., Young, S., Murray, J., Mustapha, O., Blackwell, C., Tung, Y., Noble, R. T. (2016). Halobacteriovorax, an underestimated predator on bacteria: potential impact relative to viruses on bacterial mortality. ISME Journal, 10, 491-499.

Ye, S., Laws, E. A., Yuknis, N., Ding, X., Yuan, H., Zhao, G., Wang, J., Yu, X. Y., Pei, S., Delaune, R. D. (2015). Carbon sequestration and soil accretion in coastal wetland communities of the Yellow River delta and Liaohe delta, China. Estuaries and Coasts, 38, 1885-1897.

Passow, U., Laws, E. A. (2015). Ocean acidification as one of multiple stressors: Growth response of Thalassiosira weissflogii (diatom) under temperature and light stress. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 541, 75-90.

Pei, S., Laws, E. A. (2014). Does the 14C method estimate net photosynthesis? II. Implications from cyclostat studies of marine phytoplankton. Deep-Sea Research I, 91, 94-100.

Chen, B., Laws, E. A., Liu, H., Huang, B. (2014). Estimating microzooplankton grazing half-saturation constants from dilution experiments with nonlinear feeding kinetics. Limnology and Oceanography, 59(3), 639-644.

Laws, E. A., Letelier, R. M., Karl, D. M. (2014). Estimating the compensation irradiance in the ocean: The importance of accounting for nonphotosynthetic uptake of inorganic carbon. Deep-Sea Research I, 93, 35-40.

Brix, H., Ye, S. Y., Laws, E. A., Sun, D. C., Li, G. S., Ding, X. G., Yuan, H. M., Zhao, G. M., Wang, J., Pei, S. F. (2014). Large-scale management of common reed, Phragmites australis, for paper production: A case study from the Liaohe Delta, China. Ecological Engineering, 73, 760-769.

Xie, Y., Huang, B., Lin, L., Laws, E. A., Wang, L., Shang, S., Zhang, T., Dai, M. (2014). Photosynthetic parameters in the Northern South China Sea in relation to phytoplankton community structure. Journal of Geophysical Research.