Mitigating the impacts of intensive agriculture on lowland organic soils

This studentship will address one of the most pressing global environmental challenges, namely how to maintain food supplies to a growing human population without triggering irreparable damage to the earth’s ecosystems and climate. It will focus on the most important terrestrial carbon store, peat soils, which support some of UK’s most productive agricultural land, but are being lost at an alarming rate (>1 cm/year) due to drainage-based agriculture. This has resulted in lowland peats being the largest single source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the UK land-use sector. Working within a major multi-million pound five-year project on sustainable agriculture, the student will utilise cutting-edge GHG measurement technology to quantify emissions under different forms of management, and will contribute to the development and testing of novel mitigation methods to reduce emissions. The work of the student has the potential to contribute to the development of UK sustainable land management policies.

Applicants should hold a minimum of a UK Honours Degree at 2:1 level or equivalent in subjects such as Environmental Science, Agriculture, Geography or Natural Sciences. The project is multidisciplinary, combining soil science, atmospheric emissions, agricultural management, and will operate at a number of scales, making a wide range of scientific training suitable. The student must have a good grasp of mathematics and be able to interact in a group containing a wide range of expertise.

Applications will be considered as they come in and the position will close once filled.

For further details please contact Professor Chris Evans at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bangor: [Email Address Removed]

This project is part the STARS CDT (www.starsoil.org.uk ) and will be registered at Bangor University.