Marine Valmier
After a BSc in Material Chemistry at the University of Montpellier in the South of France – where I came from – I used the opportunity to go studying one year in Canada to reorient myself toward the Environment field and then graduated from the MSc “Ecotoxycology and Environmental Chemistry” at the University of Bordeaux in 2017. During this time, I acquired a good knowledge of Soil Science that I also improved during my two internships, both linked to polluted sites and soils and the risks they create.
My PhD is part of the Agri-SOC project “Evaluating Land-Use and Land-Management Impacts on Soil Organic Carbon in Irish Agricultural System” in collaboration with Teagasc and the University of Limerick and supported by the DAFM. Indeed, agriculture in Ireland contributes over one-third of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Carbon sequestration associated with pastures and improved grassland management could provide a mitigation option without impacting on agricultural production. The aim of this project is to obtain a better understanding of the processes involved in carbon storage and thus to be able to enhance it.
This PhD will most precisely study carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from drained organic soils, and the impact of water table management on carbon dynamics. In this purpose, CO2 losses from drained soil will be assess and also quantify upon rewetting. Lysimeters will be used to experimentally manipulate water table height and static chambers equipped with an infra-red gas analyser will measured CO2 efflux. Moreover, Eddy covariance techniques will be employed to measure the land-atmosphere exchange of CO2 from both pristine and drained histosols, and will served to validate the lysimeter approach.
Email: valmierm@tcd.ie