News and Events

Prof. Daniel Said Pullicino is a recipient of an OECD Co-operative Research fellowship. During his fellowship at the Centre for Carbon, Water and Food of the University of Sydney, he will be exploring the trade-off between soil carbon sequestration and methane emissions from rice paddies. RAER wishes him all the best with his project.

We currently have an open position for a PhD within our Soil Biogeochemistry Team under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Said Pullicino. The project will focus on providing process-based insights into the spatio-temporal variability of methane emissions due to the interaction between management practices, crop development and soil properties, and will also involve field-scale monitoring of methane emissions within living labs. Call are open until the 17th November 2022 and positions are expected to start by February 2023. Info and guidelines for applying (Project Nr. 2 in the call) can be found here. 

We are currently offering a fully funded, fixed-term PhD position starting November 2022 for 3 years, to work with our Soil Biogeochemistry Team on belowground C allocation and cycling in rice paddies, and related soil functions for mitigating climate changes. The successful candidate will be enrolled in the National PhD Program in Sustainable Development and Climate Change. Applications will open towards mid to end June. Further details are available here.

A research collaboration involving scientists from RAER (DiSAFA), the University of Bayreuth, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ente Nazionale Risi has led to the discovery of new arsenic compounds in rice fields. The research, led by environmental geochemist Prof. Britta Planer-Friedrich and published in Nature Geoscience, has for the first time systematically investigated the soil conditions leading to the formation of previously unknown, sulphur-containing arsenic compounds in rice paddies. Following the development of a novel method for the reliable detection of thioarsenates, their presence in rice soils across the world and the factors controlling their formation has been reported. These findings could eventually help us predict in which rice fields we could expect to find these compounds. However, further research is urgently required to assess the actual health risks posed by thioarsenates. The authors also hope that this work will provide a milestone contribute to the global scientific community working on arsenic cycling. The research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Full-text access to the article may be obtained here.

The next EGU General Assembly (Vienna, 8-13 April 2018) will host a session on "Biogeochemistry and hydrology of hydromorphic soils (SSS5.13)" that will include a solicited keynote by Prof. Bernd Lennartz, Universität Rostock, Germany. Session details and abstract submission can be accessed here. We would like to encourage you to submit abstracts and participate in this session. 

RAER has access to two new instruments that contribute to the groups research infrastructure: Elementar's Vario Isotope Select coupled with Isoprime's isotope ratio mass spectrometer (EA-IRMS) and Perkin Elmer's NexION inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS).

The next EGU General Assembly (Vienna, 17-22 April 2016) will host a session on "Element cycling and ecological functions of paddy and wetland soils (SSS9.12)" that will include a solicited keynote by Prof. Ralf Conrad, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Germany. Session details and abstract submission can be accessed here. We would like to encourage you to submit abstracts and participate in this session.

Dr. Maria Alexandra Cucu has received the 2015 Best Doctoral Thesis Award in Soil Chemistry from the Italian Association of Agricultural Science Societies (AISSA) for her thesis entitled "Redox conditions and rice straw management drive nitrogen dynamics in temperate paddy soils". RAER would like to congratulate her on this important achievement.

Cristina Lerda has received the Agricultural Science Best Thesis Award from the University of Torino for her thesis entitled "Water management in rice paddies: Effects on soil solution composition and agro-environmental implications" (A.A. 2011/2012). RAER would like to congratulate her on this important achievement.