Nina studies soil organic carbon (SOC) stock, loss and stability in different land use types (forests, palm oil and rubber plantations), as SOC has a considerable influence on soil quality and controls various physical, chemical and biological processes in the soil environment.
During the first stages of her research, she will focus in particular on riparian sites and aims to assess the variation in C stocks sequestered in riparian sites against distance to water streams and estimate the potential for losses of C by changing the soil water contentand increasing the temperature. C stocks in riparian sites are highly vulnerable to climate and land use changes, especially if the water regime changes and ground water level drops.
This field and laboratory based research involves long-term incubation experiments, in order to assess C stock and stability in soils depending on water level and carry out spectrophotometer analyses (e.g. VIS-NIR, FTIR, MIRS and/or Rock Eval) of soil samples to evaluate changes in SOC quality.