News

The chair of agroecology is seeking a student assistant for a period of 3 months (20 hours/month) as soon as possible. The tasks include the preparation and implementation of an experiment to investigate priming effects in soil samples from a long-term field experiment on soil fertility and plant nutrition in stockless and veganic farming.
We aim to study how priming effects (i.e., changes in the rate of soil organic carbon mineralization by microorganisms in response to fresh carbon inputs) are influenced by different plant-based organic fertilizers and what this means for the long-term preservation of soil organic matter and overall soil fertility in stockless farming.

For the experiment, soil samples are incubated for three weeks, and the CO₂ production (including the isotopic signature) is continuously measured using a stable isotope laser. After the incubation period, the isotopic signatures of bulk soil and microbial biomass are determined. These tasks will be carried out by the student assistant.
The experiment will then be repeated with addition of ¹³C-labeled glucose to simulate the input of fresh organic carbon into agroecosystems. The second part of the experiment can be used for a master thesis. Therefore, preference is given to applicants who intend to write their master thesis with us afterwards. Basic knowledge of stable isotopes is also advantageous.

The experiment will be supervised by Dr. Ulrike Schwerdtner and Dr. Khatab Abdalla. If you’re interested, please send a short motivation statement and CV to: uli.schwerdtner(at)uni-bayreuth.de