PhD student
As a PhD student, I'm delving into the fascinating world of arctic plant roots through the project “The importance of deep roots in the carbon-climate feedback from thawing permafrost soils” under the supervision of Gesche Blume-Werry. The work for this project occasionally takes me to Alaska were I do field work north of the Toolik Field Station in a long-term warming experiment.
While around 80% of plant biomass is hidden belowground, they have been largely overlooked so there have only been few studies focusing on root measurements in the Arctic tundra. In regards to climate change, the understudied (deep) roots of arctic plants may be particularly important as they interact with newly-thawed permafrost soils.
Our project aims therefore to uncover, what role the roots of these arctic plants have in the carbon-climate feedback while they interact with thawing permafrost soils.