Boost to research into a changing system Earth

Four new research programs will start in 2010 as part of the Darwin Center for Biogeosciences. New research topics include the acidification of ocean water, oxygen deficiency in oceans and research into the history of climates to improve climate reconstructions. The current team of scientists will be expanded to include a further 7 PhD students and 4 postdocs. A total of 43 PhD students and postdocs are currently studying the way system earth is working under continuously changing conditions.

New research programs

1. Sensing seasonality

Applicants:
Dr. Gerald Ganssen (VU University Amsterdam – Paleoclimatology and geomorphology)
Dr. Gert-Jan Reichart (Utrecht University – Geochemistry)
Prof. dr Jelle Bijma (AWI Bremerhaven, DE - Marine Biogeosciences)

2. Double trouble: consequences of ocean acidification – past, present and future

Applicants:
Dr. Gert-Jan Reichart (Utrecht University – Geochemistry)
Prof. dr Jelle Bijma (AWI- Bremerhaven, DE - Marine Biogeosciences)
Prof. dr. Henk Brinkhuis (Utrecht University – Paleoecology)
Dr. Corina Brussaard (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research – Biological oceanography)

3. Plants in a low CO2 world: proxy development for the Pleistocene plant record and reconstructed feedbacks on the carbon cycle

Applicants:
Dr. W.M. Kürschner (Utrecht University – Paleoecology)
Prof. dr. Rien Aerts (VU University Amsterdam – Terrestrial ecology)

4. Present and past pathways for ammonium oxidation in the oxygen-depleted waters of the ocean

Applicants:
Prof. dr. ir. Mike Jetten (Radboud University Nijmegen - Microbiology)
Prof. dr. Jaap Sinninghe Damsté (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research – Marine organic biogeochemistry)

More information: Suzanne Frieters-Lint, communication Darwin Center for Biogeosciences, s.frieters@geo.uu.nl, 030 – 253 5106.