Joan Pere Casas
My research interests focus on the lateral flux of carbon from land to ocean, with special interest in the sources and fate of dissolved organic matter (DOM) through river networks. I am currently a PhD student at the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA; Spain), where I assess how in-stream processes shape DOM from headwaters to the sea using Mediterranean rivers as an archetype. I am also particularly interested in deriving a mechanistic understanding of organic matter degradation and the relative influence of intrinsic versus extrinsic factors.
Lin Feng
I am a PhD student at the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Lanzhou, China). My research interest focuses on dissolved organic matter (DOM) released from glaciers due to climate change, with special interest in the composition, sources and biogeochemical effects of DOM derived from glacier environments. The primary focus of my current research is examining the biogeochemical transformations of DOM in glacier ecosystems, and discovering the linkages between microbial communities and the molecular composition of DOM based on multiple analytical tools.
Ruben del Campo Gonzalez
As a PhD student from the University of Murcia in Spain (Dept. of Ecology and Hydrology) a lot of my research centers around dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquatic ecosystems. I am particularly interested in how different flow regimes in ephemeral systems impact the quality, and thus biogeochemical role of organic matter in the environment. I have been working with the Spencer lab to characterize DOM via a range of techniques so we can begin to develop a more mechanistic understanding of how changing land-use and flow regimes will impact the exported material.
Elizaveta Litvak
I work at the Urban Ecology Research Lab at the University of Utah. My research is focused on the effects of urbanization on local hydrology and climate. Particularly, I investigate physiological responses of urban trees and lawns to their surroundings, which play a key role in shaping up urban water fluxes and temperature regimes. My field campaign in Tallahassee involves the measurements of hydrologic fluxes associated with vegetation, as well as environmental and social factors that may control them. I am very excited about working with Tallahassee’s rich and diverse urban forest. As a city with the highest tree cover in the US, Tallahassee will provide invaluable information about the effects of urban forests on the environment.
Alexandra Veremeeva
As a PhD student at the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science (Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Russia) I conduct spatial analysis of territories underlain by Yedoma permafrost in north-eastern Siberia and examine how thermokarst lake area is changing in Siberia due to climate influences. Accurate quantification of both of these terms is important for improving our estimates of carbon storage in the region and how it is responding to climate warming.
Yinghui Wang
I’m interested in high altitude permafrost carbon release due to climate change and its impacts on biogeochemical cycling. As a PhD student at Peking University (China), I’m currently focused on thermokarst processes on the world’s highest plateau (Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau), which is particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change. With a variety of analytical tools, I investigate the transformations of permafrost carbon and assess the potential of ancient permafrost organic carbon as a carbon substrate for downstream receiving ecosystems.
Yongqiang Zhou
As a PhD candidate at the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nanjing, China), I conduct research on the sources and bioavailability of dissolved organic matter in inland waters (China) using spectral absorption and fluorescence, as well as stable isotopes. I’m currently very interested in investigating the linkage between greenhouse gas emissions and the compositional dynamics of dissolved organic matter.
Phoebe Zito
I am an analytical chemist with a focus on the development and implementation of methods for determining composition and structural changes as a result of photochemical processes in the fields of biogeochemistry, petroleomics and materials science. Currently my primary research focuses is on applying ultrahigh resolution characterization techniques on organic matter alongside optical analyses to examine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) produced from petrogenic sources.
