Rica Wegner PhD Student

I’m a PhD student working on plant-soil interactions in Arctic ecosystems. I try to understand how a shift in vegetation affects the soil biogeochemistry of carbon and nitrogen cycling in thawing permafrost soils. I am focusing in particular on how root exudates and root litter affect soil organic matter decomposition and storage by combining a variance of methods, field and lab experiments. During my PhD, I could collect knowledge in (high-resolution) LC-MS, GHG analyses, 13CO2 and EA-IRMS analyses as well as in different photometric and other basic soil biogeochemistry methods. I am a passionate soil-scientist who likes to discuss soil horizons, research and especially nitrogen cycling.