|
Project properties |
|
| Title | Investigating Carbon fluxes with time since wildfire |
| Group | Soil Physics and Land Management group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Jantiene Baartman & Joao Pedro Nunes |
| Examiner(s) | Coen Ritsema |
| Contact info | jantiene.baartman@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2021/05/25 |
| End date | |
| Description | Wildfires affect forest carbon pools directly, through combustion/heating processes, and indirectly, by changing abiotic (e.g. soil temperature) and biotic (e.g. leaf area index) conditions. The indirect impacts appear to be important, as model results suggest that post fire carbon losses are roughly equivalent to emissions during the fire.
The pulse of carbon dioxide (CO2) resulting from the first rainfall after the wildfire and subsequent dry periods is well documented at the landscape scale but the underpinning processes are not well explored. In this research, a combination of soil respiration, ecosystem respiration and laboratory methods will be used to understand these CO2 pulses. Research Objective/Question Some research questions are: • How does rainfall affect CO2 pulses? • How long does it take after the rainfall to observe the CO2 pulse? • How does the CO2 pulse depend on soil physical, chemical and biological properties? • Is the CO2 pulse observable at the ecosystem scale? What is expected from the student (type of research) This research requires participation both in field work in burnt areas in Portugal and laboratory work for a minimum period of 6 months. |
| Used skills | |
| Requirements | |