Organic matter formation vs. decay from land to water
The balance between organic matter (OM) decay and persistence plays a crucial role in determining the carbon stored in soils, sediments, rivers, and seas. Still, despite of decades of research, there is no unified conceptual framework for OM degradation (decay) and preservation (delay) across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems.
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This project is funded by the Environment and Climate Hub from the University of Vienna and in collaboration with Dr. Katrin Attermeyer based at the Water Cluster Lunz/Lake.​
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We are looking for motivated Master students or project assistants! ​
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We want to investigate OM formation and decay along gradients across soil to water transition zones by integrating biogeochemical and microbial ecology perspectives. In the offered Master thesis, the student will perform the fieldwork close to WasserCluster and Lake Lunz taking soil, sediment, and water samples for laboratory incubations. After the collection in the field, the incubations will be done in the laboratories of the Center for Microbiology and Environmental System Science at the University of Vienna. In the laboratory incubations, we will use 13C/15N labelled plant material to trace the fate of carbon and nitrogen from fresh plant organic matter via microbial communities into differently decomposed, and stabilized organic matter fractions.