Agnieszka Rzepczynska

I am a PhD student in Biology. With my PhD project I would like to better understand how microbes control cycling of carbon and nutrients in the terrestrial ecosystems and how they regulate the decomposition of soil organic matter. Specifically, I would like to focus on how microbial demands for limiting nutrients affect cycling of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the terrestrial systems. In my experiments I use soils coming from experiments established along natural gradients, as well as from remote and agricultural sites. Majority of my work is laboratory-based, where l mostly use stable- and radio-isotope methods: 3H-Thymidine incorporation to track the growth rates of bacteria and 14C-acetate-into-ergosterol to track the growth rates of fungi. I also use 15N and 33P pool-dilution methods and gas chromatography measurements to estimate N, P and C mineralisation rates. 

Ultimately, the obtained knowledge will contribute to better understanding the biology of microbial processes. My results can be further incorporated into ecosystem models to improve their accuracy in describing ecosystem responses to global change.