Benjamin Peterson

Biography

Dr. Ben Peterson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in the School of Freshwater Sciences. Dr. Peterson’s research focuses on contaminant and microbial biogeochemistry, with a specific emphasis on using advanced microbial methods to link water quality conditions and biogeochemical cycles to contaminant transformations. Much of his work has focused on microbial mercury methylation. His work has spanned the United States and a wide range of ecosystems, including thawing permafrost in Alaska, coastal peatlands in the Florida Everglades, arid western reservoirs, eutrophic temperate lakes in Wisconsin, and mining-impacted lakes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. His current research is focused on contaminant cycling in the Great Lakes and their watershed and using culture-based methods to identify ecological underpinnings of microbial-contaminant interactions. His research is highly interdisciplinary and collaborative, and he has worked extensively with federal and state labs, private partners, and other academic laboratories.

Education

- PhD, Environmental Chemistry and Technology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2021

- BSc, Biochemistry, State University of New York at Geneseo, 2012

Research Interests

- Microbial biogeochemistry

- Microbial-contaminant interactions

- Mercury cycling

- Organic contaminant degradation

Selected Publications

Cook, B. A., Peterson, B. D., Ogorek, J. M., Janssen, S. E., & Poulin, B. A. (2024). Simulated sea level rise in coastal peat soils stimulates mercury methylation. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, acsearthspacechem.4c00124. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.4c00124

Peterson, B. D., Krabbenhoft, D. P., McMahon, K. D., Ogorek, J. M., Tate, M. T., Orem, W. H., & Poulin, B. A. (2023). Environmental formation of methylmercury is controlled by synergy of inorganic mercury bioavailability and microbial mercury‐methylation capacity. Environmental Microbiology, 25(8), 1409–1423. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16364

Peterson, B. D., Poulin, B. A., Krabbenhoft, D. P., Tate, M. T., Baldwin, A. K., Naymik, J., Gastelecutto, N., & McMahon, K. D. (2023). Metabolically diverse microorganisms mediate methylmercury formation under nitrate-reducing conditions in a dynamic hydroelectric reservoir. The ISME Journal, 17, 1705–1718. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-023-01482-1

Lepak, R. F., Tate, M. T., Ogorek, J. M., DeWild, J. F., Peterson, B. D., Hurley, J. P., & Krabbenhoft, D. P. (2020). Aqueous elemental mercury production versus mercury inventories in the Lake Michigan airshed: Deciphering the spatial and diel controls of mercury gradients in air and water. ACS ES&T Water, 1, 719–727. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.0c00187

Peterson, B. D., McDaniel, E. A., Schmidt, A. G., Lepak, R. F., Janssen, S. E., Tran, P. Q., Marick, R. A., Ogorek, J. M., DeWild, J. F., Krabbenhoft, D. P., & McMahon, K. D. (2020). Mercury methylation genes identified across diverse anaerobic microbial guilds in a eutrophic sulfate-enriched lake. Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 15840–15851. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c05435