Nimisha
PhD student
Soil Science and Biogeography Unit
Department of Geography
University of Zurich - Irchel
Winterthurerstr. 190
CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
room: | Y25K70 |
email: | |
tel: | +41-44-6355166 |
fax: | +41-44-6356841 |
Research interests
Black carbon dynamics in forest soil
Wildfire has increased as climate has warmed, which might become more frequent and intense with the global warming. Consequently, the production of pyrogenic carbon (PyC), a chemically heterogeneous class of highly condensed compounds formed by incomplete combustion of biomass, would increase. PyC was considered to be bio/chemically inert, which leads to its residence times in soils, sediments, and ice of several million years. PyC production represents a sink for the fast bio-atmospheric carbon cycle, and thus for atmospheric CO2. Recently, studies based on short-term laboratory incubations with soil, however, indicate that PyC can eventually degrade and is susceptible to losses, especially over longer time scales. However, it remains largely unknown to what extent PyC decomposition contributes to CO2 emissions from soils and how recalcitrant this temporary carbon sink is? To fully evaluate the influence of PyC on the global C cycle, a better understanding of the degradation of PyC in soils is required, which would help to minimize uncertainties and discrepancies regarding estimates of PyC fluxes between the atmosphere, biosphere and oceans.