Soils in Scotland are among the most highly organic in Europe with 85% of Great Britains soil carbon store existing in Scotland. Almost 70% of UK on- shore wind-farms (existing and planned) are located in Scotland, and are deployed on peatlands and in upland areas. This is resulting in land-use change of our most carbon-rich soils.It is hypothesised that the presence of wind-farms alters the microclimate in the immediate area, altering wind-speed and air temperature. This could have significant effects on peatlands capacity to sequester and store soil C, with changes in soil temperature and water-table, altering soil C and nutrient cycling.
Experimental approach: The student will investigate the interactive effects of microclimate changes on microbial activity, through a range of factorial (water table, temperature) experiments with large soil monoliths (1m). Assessments will include measurements of: greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes; C and N mineralization; and microbial community structure through PLFA analysis.Through these manipulations changes in measured GHG fluxes will be related to changes in microbial community structure.
Training: This project will be integrated with the NERC consortium grant “Microclimates”. The student will receive training in techniques for soil and microbial process studies and will work alongside the projects PDRA (Glasgow) and existing CEH and Glasgow PhD students. CEH and Glasgow University have extensive formal training programmes available in personal and professional skills including data analysis, presentation, and scientific writing.The project will be based at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster and jointly supervised by Dr Jeanette Whitaker and Dr Niall McNamara (CEH Lancaster) and Dr Susan Waldron (School of Geography and Earth Sciences, Glasgow University). Details are on www.FindaPhD.com or e-mail Jeanette Whitaker (jhart@ceh.ac.uk)
Closing date 12th March 2010.Start date is flexible between May-September 2010
