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SUMMARY:ENAC Seminar Series by Dr M. Aeppli
DTSTART:20201113T170000
DTEND:20201113T174500
DTSTAMP:20260510T202419Z
UID:7573af9d595a89c76f050a7cffaa75d4741845e702b8b8b0f238c47f
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Meret Aeppli\n17:00 – 17:45 – Dr Meret Aeppli\nPostdoct
 oral fellow at Stanford University\, US\n\nTracking Electrons in Soils: Ho
 w Electro-Active Minerals Affect Soil Carbon Turnover\n\nSoil is a key com
 ponent of the global carbon cycle that can intensify or mitigate climate c
 hange. Soil organic carbon also plays a pivotal role in soil stability\, f
 ertility\, water-holding capacity\, and biodiversity. Microorganisms trans
 form soil organic carbon to greenhouse gases by coupling the oxidation of 
 organic carbon compounds to the reduction of electron acceptors in microbi
 al respiration. Solid phases containing redox-active elements\, such as ir
 on minerals\, are often used in microbial respiration under oxygen-limited
  conditions. However\, our understanding of this process and hence our abi
 lity to predict carbon turnover is limited because the electron accepting 
 properties of minerals are largely unknown.\nRecent research introduced an
  electrochemical approach to quantify electron transfer to minerals. This 
 approach allows tracking electron transfer to minerals in soils. It can al
 so be used to characterize the reactivity of minerals toward reduction und
 er controlled conditions\, allowing to compare reactivity across minerals 
 and environmental conditions. Ongoing work on floodplain soils in the Rock
 y Mountains (Colorado\, United States) indicates that mineral reactivity a
 ffects carbon turnover in these soils. In anoxic soil incubations\, carbon
  dioxide was produced only in the presence of reactive minerals that were 
 being used in microbial respiration but not in the presence of non-reactiv
 e minerals.\nFuture work aims to determine processes of soil organic carbo
 n stabilization in Swiss mountain ecosystems by identifying the factors co
 ntrolling microbial respiration\, including interactions between organic c
 arbon and minerals. Through systematic assessments of organic carbon stabi
 lization across soil types\, soil development stages and environmental con
 ditions\, this work aims to provide generalizable concepts to assess futur
 e changes in soil organic carbon stocks. The findings of past\, current an
 d future research will better our understanding of soil processes in the g
 lobal carbon cycle and can inform the development of Earth System Models t
 o improve predictions of carbon cycling.\n\n\nShort bio:\nMeret Aeppli is 
 a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University. Her research focuse
 s on biogeochemical processes that control the cycling of elements in soil
  systems. Her current work\, which is funded by the Swiss National Science
  Foundation\, aims to elucidate how electro-active minerals affect the tur
 nover of carbon in floodplain soils. In addition to this work\, Meret is i
 nvolved in interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers at Stanford U
 niversity and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory that focus on the coupl
 ing of hydrological and biogeochemical processes in soils and effects of t
 hese processes on groundwater quality. In collaboration with researchers a
 t UC Davis\, she investigates redox processes in lake sediments and their 
 effects on lake water chemistry. Meret holds a Bachelor's and a Master's d
 egree in Environmental Sciences with a Major in Biogeochemistry and Pollut
 ant Dynamics from ETH Zurich. She obtained her PhD from ETH Zurich in 2018
 . She was honored with the ETH Medal for her dissertation work in which sh
 e developed novel approaches to quantify the redox properties and reactivi
 ties of iron minerals.\n 
LOCATION:Zoom https://epfl.zoom.us/j/83208463264
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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