Imbalance-P

Dr. Verlinden Melanie was appointed as technical assistant for a short period of time to support the measurement campaign in French Guyana.

Expert in remote sensing, ecological modelling, ecosystem carbon and water dymanics

Junior coordinator of the IMBALANCE-P

My main contribution to the IMBALANCE-P project is to gather, ensemble and analyse different ecological databases with the aim of studying the effect of nutrient availability, biodiversity and climate on forest features, productivity and carbon balance from a macroecological perspective.

Soil microbial community composition

Post doc working working on root identification and characterization in response to fertilizer treatments. Responsible for the root sampling during the wet and dry season measuring campaigns of 2019 in French Guiana.

My work focuses on improving the representation of soil C dynamics in the soil module of the land surface model ORCHIDEE. More specifically, I am implementing and validating a new representation of the leaching of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from soil into rivers and of  ¹³C in soil.

Former collaborator at the University of Antwerp

Chemical ecology.

Worked on root and soil sampling during the wet season campaign of 2019 in French Guiana. Analysed soil samples for microbial biomass and nutrient turnover rates.

Soil organic matter formation and decomposition, plant-soil-atmosphere carbon transfer, and soil C-N-P relationships.

N2 fixation in Guiana.

I will measure leaf level gas exchange and simulate plot level photosynthesis to study aboveground respiration and tree carbon allocation.

I will conduct research into the effects of variation in nutrient status, climate and microsite characteristics on soil microbial communities and the functions they perform.