[ES_JOBS_NET] Postdoc position - Berkeley/UArizona - on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and soil C

Sun Feb 26 22:47:24 MST 2023

Are you interested in soil volatile carbon, where it comes from, and how microbes transform it into organic matter? We have a collaborative postdoc position between LBNL with Eoin Brodie, Romy Chakraborty, Kolby Jardine and Laura Meredith and Malak Tfaily at UArizona. Position is based in Berkeley, CA.

Apply:

https://arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/4/home/requisition/13610?c=arizona

Contact: laurameredith at arizona.edu and kjjardine at lbl.gov

The School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona seeks a postdoctoral researcher to work on a project funded by Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research on how trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by microbial, plant, and abiotic processes mediate below ground plant and microbial interactions by extending the rhizosphere and enhance soil carbon storage. The postdoc will help with greenhouse and field experiments in the Sierras to (1) quantify the direct contributions of VOCs from plants to soil C pools via root input and identify the involved microbes; and (2) quantify the impact of microbial VOCs on fungi and roots and thus on soil C pools. The specific expected outcome will be new understanding of the role of VOCs in soil C cycling and stabilization and in soil ecological and metabolic interactions. The position is to be based in Berkeley, California in the Real-time Volatile Metabolomics laboratory at the UC Berkeley Oxford tract greenhouse (https://nature.berkeley.edu/oxford-facility) where potted seedlings of Ponderosa Pine and Sorghum will be maintained and studied. The postdoc will measure VOCs at the Blodgett Forest Research Station (https://forests.berkeley.edu/forests/blodgett) near a long-term deep soil warming experiment in a temperate forest to evaluate relationships between VOCs and soil C in an established, large-scale experiment. The postdoc will deploy, operate, and maintain a real time VOC sensor (proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometer, PTR-MS) in the field and greenhouse. In addition, the postdoc will integrate VOC measurements with enhanced identification capabilities and extended suite of compounds using both an online and offline thermal desorption-gas chromatograph-mass spectrometers.

Professional development of the postdoc will be facilitated through integrative interactions, constructive assessment, and support between the University of Arizona and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The postdoc will actively participate in research, management, and communication activities of this project, with encouragement to engage in research exchanges across institutions. The postdoc will be exposed to careers in university, national lab, and industry settings. Additional postdoc activities include instrument calibration, maintenance, and configuration of experiments, data analysis, talks, preparation of publications, and project meetings.

Outstanding UA benefits include health, dental, vision, and life insurance; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; UA/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; access to UA recreation and cultural activities; and more!

The University of Arizona has been recognized for our innovative work-life programs. For more information about working at the University of Arizona and relocations services, please click here<http://talent.arizona.edu/>.

Duties & Responsibilities

  *   Participate in PTR-MS and TD-GC-MS calibration, maintenance, and preparing and running samples, as well as collecting and processing data on plant, soil, and microbial volatile emissions and uptake and environmental variables.
  *   Determine the impact of microbial growth-inhibiting VOCs on ectomycorrhizal fungi and soil C using greenhouse studies with pine.
  *   Determine the impact of known microbially-produced plant-growth-inhibiting and promoting VOCs on roots and soil C cycling using greenhouse growth chambers and field plots.
  *   Characterize microbe-plant interactions in plants with differing traits Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench (C4 plant, arbuscular mycorrhizae) and Pinus ponderosa (C3 plant, ectomycorrhizal fungi)
  *   Separating the roles of VOCs vs other substrates with innovative experimental and technical approaches including soil probes that non-destructively quantify in situ soil VOC consumption and production, online soil/root measurement systems, and unique field systems and infrastructure
  *   Determine how root VOC emissions and plant photosynthetic and VOC traits and environmental responses influence soil VOC-C stabilization using greenhouse growth chambers
  *   Develop high throughput methods focused first on methanol as it can dominate leaf VOC emissions from growing plants including sorghum and pine and is produced by microbial degradation of biomass including root litter. Development of methods targeting methylotrophic bacteria and fungi
  *   Determine how deep soil warming at the Blodgett Forest field site influences soil C in a coniferous forest using field subsurface VOC measurements.

Laura K Meredith

Assistant Professor, The University of Arizona

School of Natural Resources and the Environment

ENR2 Bldg., 1064 E. Lowell Street, Tucson, AZ 85721

Office: N225, Phone: 520 621 1052

BIO5 Institute

Keating Bldg., 1657 E. Helen Street, Tucson, AZ 85721

Office: 203, Lab: 202, Phone: 520 626 4213

laurameredith at arizona.edu<mailto:laurameredith at arizona.edu>

http://www.laurameredith.com/

Pronouns: she/her/hers
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