Although most of the analytical work is carried out in the organic biogeochemistry laboratories at SkIO in Savannah, GA, samples have been obtained worldwide and many projects bring together investigators from several institutions.

Major field programs aimed at studying organic matter cycling at oxic-anoxic interfaces in the marine water column have been carried out in the Black Sea and the Cariaco Trench (off the coast of Venezuela). Biogeochemical studies of particulate matter are an integral part of Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) programs in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Southern Ocean. These projects are collaborative investigations combining our lipid studies with the amino acid expertise of Dr. Cindy Lee at SUNY-Stony Brook, and carbohydrate and lignin work of Dr. John Hedges at the University of Washington.

Stable carbon isotopic compositions of lipid biomarkers in particulate organic matter and on the controls of carbon isotope fractionation by marine phytoplankton have been determined on samples from the Black Sea and Cariaco Trench, Peru upwelling area, Equatorial Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean, Sargasso Sea, and Indian Ocean. These investigations are carried out in collaboration with Dr. Katherine Freeman at Pennsylvania State University, Drs. Brian Popp, and Robert Bidigare , both at the University of Hawaii .

Work in coastal marine areas includes a study of the remineralization and preservation of estuarine organic matter in an organically rich coastal lagoon (Cape Lookout Bight, N.C.) in collaboration with Dr. Christopher Martens (University of North Carolina) and in coastal salt marshes with Dr. Joel Kostka (Florida State University).

Lipid biomarkers are also being utilized to characterize the sources and fate of particulate and dissolved organic material in the Piracicaba River basin, south-central Brazil, through collaborations with scientists at the Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura ( CENA ), Campus de Piracicaba, University of Sao Paulo.