Do you want to dedicate your technical skills to research on greenhouse gas balance in fen meadow landscapes? Do you want to be part of a dynamic and passion-driven team? Then we may be looking for you!The
Water Systems and Global Change group (WSG) of Wageningen University & Research is looking for a research assistant to assist in all aspects of field data collection, maintenance, logistics as well as data management, and take coordinating responsibility on several of these, working in the following context.
Drained organic soils are an important source of greenhouse gases worldwide. Also in the low lying areas of the Netherlands drainage of its organic soils, with the aim to enable more intensive usage of the land, leads to oxidation of organic material, significant carbon dioxide release and subsequent land subsidence. As part of climate mitigation policies the Dutch government seeks to reduce these emissions by at least 1 Mtonne in 2030. In support of these policies, several research research projects funded at (sub-)national level (such as the National Research programme on Greenhouse Gases in Peatlands-
NOBV) aim to investigate the effects of various mitigation measures on total greenhouse gas balance of the targeted areas.
The Water Systems and Global Change group (WSG) has built up a considerable track record in studying interactions between greenhouse gas exchange, hydrology, land use, and climate (change). WSG contribute to this peatland research with (mobile) tower based eddy covariance measurements of greenhouse gas exchange at field scale and with airborne measurements using the same technique at regional scale. Over the past 3 years we have built a strong measurement programme that includes 20+ operational sites and an aircraft with ever expanding instrumentation. We are a team of eight people, including (field)technicians, PhD, PostDoc and senior staff.
As a research assistant, you will work on the following (research) topics:
- assist in design and assemblage of (mobile) greenhouse gas monitoring strategies at field to regional scale in locations sampling the variety of organic soil types and associated land uses in the Netherlands (measuring equipment, communication and networking, power supply)
- regular maintenance, calibration and problem solving of all equipment; occasional maintenance of study sites (fencing, mowing, etc); co-organising field logistics
- processing and analysing the obtained high frequency eddy covariance data to greenhouse gas fluxes at diurnal to inter annual time scales; setup and maintenance of the data base and associated data ingestion and quality monitoring tools.
- assist in the analysis of data from multiple locations and transects in relation to explanatory variables from vegetation and soil characteristics, land and water management and climate
Your work will take place in the office, but more so in our technical workshop and in the field. Fieldtrips take you to (beautiful) locations on farmers land as well as nature reserves all over the west and north of our country and require flexibility in working hours.