U.S.-Germany Program: Dissertation Research on Trace Gas Fluxes in a Woodland Ecosystem

该奖项支持亚利桑那州立大学托马斯·纳什教授的博士生Joanne Romagni在德国美因茨的马克斯·普朗克化学研究所进行为期十周的学位论文增强研究。她将与Franz Meixner博士和Juergen Kesselmeier博士以及他们的研究小组成员一起在生物地球化学系工作。她的研究访问的具体目标是学习测量痕量氮气的方法，获得更多的痕量硫气体分析经验，并建造和测试适合她对地衣和树叶研究的气体采样室。这一经验将对她在加州蓝橡树林地生态系统中量化氮和硫痕量气体的来源和汇的研究非常有用。这些信息将提高我们对大气微量气体生物来源的理解，这些气体在气候变化中发挥作用。马克斯·普朗克化学研究所在大气化学和大气与生物圈之间的相互作用方面是世界上最受尊敬的研究机构之一。罗马尼将与之合作的科学家是研究微量气体通量和全球氮硫生物地球化学循环的专家。他们开发了新的高效微气象方法来监测植被和土壤中微量的氮和硫气体。获得这些技术的经验将直接有助于Romagni女士关于林地生态系统中微量气体通量的博士论文研究。

This award supports Joanne Romagni, a Ph.D. student of Professor Thomas Nash at Arizona State University, for a ten week period of dissertation enhancement research at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. She will work in the Department of Biogeochemistry with Drs. Franz Meixner and Juergen Kesselmeier and members of their research groups. The specific objectives of her research visit are to learn methodologies to measure trace nitrogen gases, to gain additional experience with trace sulfur gas analyses, and to construct and test gas sampling chambers appropriate for her research on lichens and leaves. This experience will be very useful in her research to quantify sources and sinks of nitrogen and sulfur trace gases in a blue oak woodland ecosystem in California. Such information will improve our understanding of the biogenic origins of atmospheric trace gases which play a role in climate change. The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry is one of the most respected research institutes in the world in the area of atmospheric chemistry and the interactions between the atmosphere and the biosphere. The scientists with whom Ms. Romagni will work are experts in the study of trace gas fluxes and global biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen and sulfur. They have developed new and efficient micrometeorological methods to monitor trace nitrogen and sulfur gases in vegetation and soils. Gaining experience with these techniques will directly benefit Ms. Romagni's doctoral dissertation research on trace gas fluxes in a woodland ecosystem.