Adrian A. Wackett

I was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota (unceded Wahpekute/Dakota lands). I double majored in Chemistry and Geosciences at Trinity University (TX) before returning to Saint Paul and completing my M.S. degree in Land and Atmospheric Sciences (specifically pedology and biogeochemistry) at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where I studied global w'o'rming. Before coming to Stanford as an NSF GRFP Fellow I traveled extensively through Latin America and SE Asia (by bike) and worked as an independent researcher affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences at Umeå University and the Climate Impacts Research Centre in Abisko, Sweden. I’m passionate about exploring the interconnectedness of Earth’s systems through my research and am equally passionate about looking beyond academia to cultivate enduring relationships with the lands and peoples I work with. Previous topics of inquiry include coupling ant bioturbation to the erosion and weathering of hillslope soils in SE Australia, exploring earthworm invasions and their deterministic effects on soil carbon dynamics in Fennoscandian and Alaskan forests, and examining the biogeochemical diversity of ‘black smoker’ plume particles at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. My dissertation focuses on using an array of radionuclide tracers and synchrotron-based X-ray approaches to explore how landscapes record and respond to an array of disturbance agents, from biological invasions in Earth’s northern biomes to extreme storm events in Puerto Rico to cultural burning and wildfires here in California. Some of my preliminary findings indicate that earthworms have profound (but time-dependent) impacts on soil carbon storage and that earthworms can accelerate the weathering of silicate minerals in tropical soils by a factor of 1,000–10,000x.

February 2025