Atmospheric reduced nitrogen and its environmental impacts: regional variation

Applications are invited for this 3.5 year fully-funded E4 DTP studentship with PhD registration through the School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh.

Supervisors: Prof Mathew Heal, School of Chemistry ([Email Address Removed]); Dr Massimo Vieno, NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH); Prof David Stevenson, School of GeoSciences.

Full project details at: https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/e4-dtp/project/pdf/9

Pollution of the atmosphere has myriad consequences including direct effects on human health, ecosystems and global warming, but also indirect effects on these through the complex interconnecting processes of the N and C cycles and land-atmosphere fluxes. A current major concern is particulate matter derived from ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4+), i.e. nitrogen in its reduced form. The predominant source of NH3 into the atmosphere is from agriculture – from fertilizer usage and volatilization of animal manure – and the increasing need for food production means that global NH3 emissions are rising. However different regions of the world have very different current and projected absolute and relative emissions of NH3, SO2, NOx and VOC. In some regions all emissions are rising, in others, such as Europe, there have already been substantial reductions in SO2, and to a lesser extent NOx. Different world regions also have very different climate/meteorological conditions (e.g. temperature and rainfall). All these factors are anticipated to lead to very different gas-phase and particle-forming chemistries, including of ozone, and consequently to different outcomes in terms of the pollutant mix to which people are exposed and in terms of the N, S and O3 deposition to crops and other vegetation.

This project will use a version of the ‘EMEP/MSC-W’ atmospheric chemistry transport model (emep.int/mscw/) to understand and quantify the chemical and meteorological linkages between sources of pollutants and their impacts. Example research questions include:
• How does gas and particle partitioning, and wet/dry deposition, of reduced N differ in different world regions?
• Is NH3 still a major precursor of particulate matter in regions where the average temperature is hotter than that for NH4NO3 evaporation?
• What is the extent of long-range transport of NH3 in the form of NH4NO3 from rural to urban areas and into and out of a particular region?
• To what extent does reduced N chemistry impact on O3 formation and on the phytotoxic doses of O3 to crops/vegetation?

Formal applications must be made through the E4 DTP by 12.00 on 10th January 2019. The application process is described at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/e4-dtp/how-to-apply. Prior informal enquires to Professor Mathew Heal ([Email Address Removed]) are welcomed.


The student will have office space at both the University of Edinburgh and CEH. Both institutions have high quality graduate training programmes for generic and specific skills training and career development. Professional skills courses include those on communication, project management, literature searching, presentations and safety.

The School of Chemistry holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. The University is a member of the Race Equality Charter and is a Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champion, actively promoting LGBT equality. The University has a range of initiatives to support a family friendly working environment. See our University Initiatives website for further information: https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/help-advice/family-friendly.