Nitrogen inputs into agricultural systems are an essential requirement for healthy, high yielding crop production, but they can also result in the release of excess N either by leaching or by emission of the highly reactive greenhouse gas (GHG) N2O. In the UK, direct N2O emissions from soil accounted for about 50.5% of all N2O released in 2016. This is not only damaging to the environment, it is also a financial loss to the farmer and a lost nutrient resource to the growing crops. With the use of state of the art real-time GHG detection systems (monitoring N2O, NH3, CH4, CO2 and O2 emissions) and advanced molecular and sequencing methods for detecting, expression profiling and sequencing genes involved in N-cycling and GHG emission, this project aims to understand which environmental drivers are involved in GHG emissions and identify mitigation strategies for their reduction.
Applicants should hold a minimum of a UK Honours Degree at 2:1 level or equivalent in subjects such as Environmental Science, Natural Sciences or biology. Experience in the laboratory are desired.
For further details please contact Dr Tim Mauchline tim.mauchline@rothamsted.ac.uk or Ian Clark ian.clark@rothamsted.ac.uk.