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PHD students at the Department of Earth Sciences

Here you find information about PHD students at the Department of Earth Sciences and what their research is about.

Cole Brachmann

Start year: 2019

Title: Importance of trophic interactions for mycorrhizal dynamics across the Arctic

Research questions: To what extent does herbivory influence belowground carbon storage in the Arctic by selecting specific shrub types and their associated mycorrhizal fungi? Are evergreen shrubs and their associated ericoid-mycorrhizae likely to become more dominant than deciduous shrub-ectomycorrhizal associations as a result of large mammalian herbivory?

Tzu Tung (Sassa) Chen

Start year: 2018

Title: Climate change impacts on human health in the pre-industrial era - combining paleoclimate data and ancient DNA

Research questions: How do we assess the relationship of health and climate change in a changing climate? Can we detect infectious disease consequences of extreme weather?

Salar Karam

Start year: 2019

Title: Why is the deep Arctic Ocean Warming?

Research questions: The overall aim of this project is to determine to complete dynamics of heat transport into the deep Arctic Ocean in order to accurately project changes in essential climate variables that depend on this heat, e.g. sea level rise and sea ice extent.

Julia Kukulies

Start year: 2018

Title: Dynamics and importance of convection in the Tibetan Plateau region. Satellite observations vs. model simulations

Research questions: Which role does organized convection play for extreme precipitation in the Tibetan Plateau? What sub-mesoscale processes are important for precipitation and how will these processes at different scales change as a response to circulation changes?

Hui-Wen Lai

Start year: 2018

Title: Dynamics and importance of convection for precipitation in the Third Pole region: model simulations

Research questions: What are the variabilities of extreme weather events over high mountain environments? How do extreme weather events over the Tibetan Plateau change under a warming climate?

Carina Liebl

Start year: 2021

Title: Tracing carvers on the rocks

Aurora Patchett

Start date: January 14, 2019

Title: Understanding Arctic browning from macro to micro

Favourite research question: What makes ecosystems resilient?

Petter Stridbeck

Start year: 2021

Pramod Surendran

Title: Water operations in urban/rural areas: permits, investigations, technical measures and monitoring

The main aim of this project is to strengthen and clarify the connection between environmental assessment (permits for water activities when necessary), technical design, control and to develop a red thread through the process. Another aim of the project is to provide a basic structure for interdisciplinary discussions for example geology, hydrogeology, rock technology, geotechnics, construction technology with focus on water management such as grouting/sealing of soil and rock.

Nils Wallenberg

Start year: 2017

Title: Predicting outdoor thermal comfort in urban areas – Implications for climate sensitive design

I am interested in spatiotemporal variations in shortwave and longwave radiation and their influences on the mean radiant temperature in urban environments, an essential parameter for estimating outdoor human thermal comfort. I am particularly interested in the diffuse shortwave component and how it can be parameterized in models. Another interest lies in the empirical part, i.e. how to measure and observe radiant load outdoors. Furthermore, I am curious in how vegetation can help in mitigating possible excessive radiant load through shading, e.g. where the best location for a tree would be in an urban setting. These topics are mainly investigated through fieldwork, GIS and modelling, and will in the end lead to the development of climate sensitive tools and techniques that can be used by e.g. other researchers or urban planners.