Eva Pfannerstill

This PhD project is part of the University of Cologne’s interdisciplinary initiative “The Rhine Floodplain – a Biogeochemically Coupled System under Stress” , which examines how altered hydrology reshapes floodplain sediment dynamics, biodiversity, food webs, microbial processes, and greenhouse gas emissions. The advertised doctorate focuses on soil microbial nutrient stoichiometry and soil-atmosphere exchange in river floodplains. The successful candidate will investigate how nutrient constraints influence microbial biomass, respiration, carbon-use efficiency, and enzyme allocation, and how these microbial responses affect carbon partitioning and climate-relevant emissions. The research combines field and laboratory work across hydrological gradients in the floodplain. The project involves measuring greenhouse gas and VOC emissions in the field, analysing VOC samples with thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and conducting nutrient addition experiments with carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to test microbial nutrient limitation. The resulting data will be integrated to understand how floodplain nutrient dynamics regulate atmospheric exchange processes. The position is co-supervised between the University of Cologne and Forschungszentrum Jülich , and the project is embedded in an interdisciplinary environment spanning biology, geosciences, and atmospheric science. The advert also notes collaboration with two other PhD students and a postdoc, offering a research setting with strong cross-disciplinary exchange. The work is designed for a candidate interested in experimental soil and ecosystem biogeochemistry, microbial ecology, and trace-gas research in dynamic floodplain environments.