Evaluation of active and passive soil organic matter fractions on selected treatments of the long term fertilizer experiment at Dikopshof (Experimental/laboratory work).

Crop science

Climate change is affected by global carbon cycle, where a large amount of carbon is currently stored in the form of organic matter in agricultural land. The large part of soil organic matter (SOM) is stored in passive pools that are resistant to decomposition and change over time. However, SOM turnover strongly influence by agricultural management through the active SOM pool. Active SOM is the most sensitive pool available relatively in small proportion and it is easily affected by different agricultural management and environmental fluctuations. Therefore, the assessment of active SOM change can provide us with a better understanding of the effect of agricultural management on SOM pools.

The objective of this research is to quantify various SOM fractions (active and passive) and their relative proportions in total soil organic matter (TSOM) under the long-term fertilizer experiment.

1. Experimental work: soil sampling
2. Laboratory work: measuring SOM fractions

Literature research, statistical analysis and discussion of experimental results and their graphical representation, discussion of results.

About 6 months (start possible at any time)

English preferred, German possible

Basic work experience in the laboratory and interest in crop science topics including the soil organic matter and carbon cycle.

Dr. Thomas Gaiser (tgaiser@uni-bonn.de), Dr. Aram Gorooei (gorooei@uni-bonn.de), Dr. Bahareh Kamali (bkamali@uni-bonn.de)