Student Opportunity Announcements
Graduate Student Assistantship, Environmental Sciences
This project will assess the flux and age of DOC in rivers draining important agricultural regions in the State of California. Using polymeric resins and other chemical separation techniques, riverine DOC will be fractionated into soil-derived, aquatic-derived and fossil-derived subcomponents and radiocarbon dating will be used to determine the fractions’ ages and watershed turnover times. Fluorometric techniques (excitation-emission matrix scanning) will be used to verify the fractionation process. River samples will also be collected upstream in more natural settings to define boundary conditions for DOC flux and age so that agricultural impacts are more easily discernable. Results from the research will provide information for understanding documented long-term changes in riverine DOC concentrations in similar regions with intensive agriculture. If successful, this project will confirm that radiocarbon measurements of riverborne carbon are an effective tool to monitor carbon stocks and assess carbon sequestration programs in agricultural/natural landscapes throughout the United States.
The Department of Environmental Sciences, at the University of California, Riverside, is seeking a highly motivated, graduate student researcher in the field of biogeochemistry. Preference will be given to individuals with experience in aquatic chemistry and environmental isotopes. The position can be filled at either the Ph.D or MS level. Enquiries and applications should be made to Dr. James O. Sickman (jsickman@ucr.edu) by March 15, 2010. For more information about the University of California, Riverside and the Department of Environmental Sciences can be found at our website: http://www.ucr.edu/.