Alba Aguion publishes her University of York Master thesis

Two years ago, during Alba‘s Master in Ecology and Environmental Management at the University of York (United Kingdom),  she took part in a research project in the high Arctic led by the professor and researcher Kelly Redeker. The study aimed to find evidence of ongoing microbial metabolism in arctic glaciers. To do so, Alba collected gas samples in Svalbard during the summer of 2015 that were analysed afterwords at Redeker‘s lab it York University. Previously, Kelly Redeker and James Chong had conducted the same study at Signy Island (Antarctica) and had obtained similar results. The combination of both studies have recently led to the first direct in situ evidence of alterations due to the continuous microbial metabolism of methyl halides in the snowpack. These results suggest that the neglected microbial activity could constitute a potential source of error in climate history interpretations by introducing a bias in the quantification of gases trapped in the ice.

The study “Microbial metabolism directly affects trace gases in (sub) polar snowpacks” led by Redeker has been published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface this month. For FOL member Alba this experience has developed her skills as a researcher and it has enable her to familiarize with the peer review process of publication. Congratulations from FOL to Alba and the other authors of the paper.