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Project properties |
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| Title | Moisture and temperature effects on peat soil respiration |
| Group | Soil Biology |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Erne Blondeau, Jan Willem van Groenigen, Jos van Dam |
| Examiner(s) | TBD |
| Contact info | Erne.blondeau@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2023/09/01 |
| End date | 2024/04/01 |
| Description | Peat soils play an important role in the global carbon cycle, through their ability to sequester a large stock of carbon. In the Netherlands, about 60% of peat soils are used as grasslands. Intensive drainage of these peat meadows for cattle farming leads to soil carbon decomposition and subsequent CO2 emissions. The Dutch government aims to decrease the emissions of greenhouse gases from peat meadow areas with 1 Mton CO2-equivalent by 2030. Therefore, the current interest in the underlying mechanisms of peat decomposition is high.
In this project you will contribute to improving our understanding of combined moisture and temperature effects on peat decomposition, which is expected to differ between different peat types. These mechanisms are studied in a controlled lab environment. Undisturbed soil samples will be collected from several soil layers at several peat meadow areas in the Netherlands. The samples will receive varying temperature and moisture treatments in a controlled environment, and CO2 emissions will be measured using a photo acoustic gas analyzer. The collected data will be related to peat properties and used to formulate general relationships for respiration rates that can be used in modelling scenario’s and, ultimately, management decisions. |
| Used skills | Literature review, experimental design, soil sampling, biological and chemical laboratory work, measurements of CO2 emissions, data analysis |
| Requirements | Standard requirements for starting a MSc thesis project at either SBL or SLM. |