About

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Sustainable Agroecosystems group at ETH Zurich working with Dr. Johan Six and other colleagues at the Congo Biogeochemical Observatory (CBO). I am interested in the fate of large, globally relevant, stocks of soil carbon that are on the move due to human activities. In particular, I study whether these vulnerable carbon reservoirs leak into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide through rivers and streams and thereby add to the greenhouse effect. 

My current research is focused on the effect of agriculture on carbon mobilization in watersheds of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. To accomplish this, I use a variety of analytical tools to characterize both organic and inorganic carbon in streams draining pristine and impacted catchments. These include stable and radiocarbon isotopes, FT-ICR mass spectrometry, fluorescence, uv-visible absorbance, and bioincubations. 

With these tools I strive to link the isotopic signature of inorganic carbon with potential organic sources. Underpinning this research is an effort to improve methods of capturing whole watershed processes, since a growing body of work has highlighted headwaters as important vents for respired terrestrial carbon dioxide.