PhD project: Reconstructing fire history

di Tiziana Gentilesca · 15/07/2013

Zurich, Switzerland

We invite applications for a PhD project in our group working on the “Terrestrial carbon cycle (and global change)”. We seek to understand the influence of anthropogenic environmental change, such as increasing number of wildfires, temperature and atmospheric nitrogen deposition, on the terrestrial carbon cycle, with an emphasis on soil organic matter turnover and fate.

The title of the PhD project is:

Can we read the fire-history from a “muddy archive”? Biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion reconstructed from North-American lake sediments

In collaboration with research partners from other institutions, including the Biogeosciences Group led by Tim Eglinton at the Geology Department ETH, the PhD student will collect and analyze samples, and interpret results. Laboratory measurements will include cutting edge analytical approaches such as isotopic (¹³C, ¹⁴C) characterization of specific molecular fire markers.

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