My work, part of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration programme, will help quantify chemical and microbial processes in soils which play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. Working in the Fens, I will use measurements of traditional stable isotope ratios to refine models of biogeochemical processes in drained wetlands. As the project progresses, I will measure the effects of changing environmental conditions (water table depth, temperature, soil type, seawater input, etc.) on soil carbon chemistry. Drained wetlands emit large amounts of greenhouse gas so refining our understanding of key soil carbon processes will help in the transition to more sustainable land management.
Additionally, I am working on a project using calcium, sulfur and carbon isotope ratios to better constrain chemical processes in the sediment pore waters of large lakes (another significant source of greenhouse emissions). Using samples from Lake Baikal, my work contributes to our understanding of redox processes, carbonate mineralisation and sulfur isotope fractionation in freshwater settings
