Storage and Release of Soil Organic Carbon in Alpine Environments

This PhD project at Université de Savoie Mont-Blanc examines how climate change and pastoral practices influence soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in vulnerable alpine ecosystems. The researcher will combine observational field approaches across historical pastoral gradients with experimental climate manipulations to evaluate carbon stabilization and loss mechanisms. Responsibilities include deploying advanced analytical techniques such as microbial sequencing, metabolomics, and isotope labeling to bridge landscape-scale and laboratory-scale processes. The successful candidate will contribute crucial insights into how mountain environments respond to ongoing global environmental shifts.

• Conduct observational field studies across pastoral gradients in the Alps utilizing the 'Alpages sentinelles' network.
• Manage experimental setups combining simulated climate changes with varying grazing intensities.
• Perform advanced laboratory analyses including organic matter fractionation, radiocarbon dating, and metabolomics.
• Measure CO2 fluxes and carry out isotope labeling and lysimetry experiments.
• Analyze interactions between human practices, microbial communities, and soil carbon dynamics.
• Synthesize research findings to anticipate the responses of alpine soils to global environmental changes.