Alex Houston

Sources, sinks, and subsidies of carbon within coastal saltmarsh habitats

PhD aims:
To improve our understanding of what the sources of organic carbon are for Scottish saltmarshes, and their fates once accreted. This will contribute to work to include saltmarshes in the UK’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory and identify how they cycle carbon and fit into the global carbon cycle.

PhD objectives:

  • Use extensive fieldwork and a range of complementary methods (such as bulk δ13C and 14C) to determine what the relative contributions of different sources of organic carbon are to saltmarshes in varying environments.
  • Determine which of these sources are primarily degrading, and which are contributing to the long-term carbon store.
  • Use a novel method for 14C analysis of CO2 and CH4 emitted from saltmarshes.

Contact details:
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Alex_bluecarbon