Student supervision
On this page you will find information on current, previous, and potential student projects within the Global Wetland Center.
Bachelor students
2025
- Thit Helena Ipsen, Thomas Møller Nielsen and Benjamin Kauffeldt Wegener – Potentiale for lagring af organisk kulstof i jorden ved en tilbagerykning af Ribediget. Supervisors Mikkel Fruergaard and Guy Schurgers.
- Rosa Gregersen og Marija Popovic – Soil characteristics of a rice paddy field in the Red River Delta of Vietnam: a focus on carbon stocks and impacting factors. Supervisor Bo Elberling.
- Tenna Melissa Nielsen. Supervisor Bo Elberling.
2024
- Mette Iversen – Spatial analyse af CH4-fluxvariationer fra verdens vådområder. Supervisor Guy Schurgers.
- Jeppe Hass Bonné – Klimatiske konsekvenser ved vådlægning efter landbrugsarealer: Estimering og sammenligning af drivhusgasbudgetter for vådområder og landbrugsarealer i det kontinental USA. Supervisor Guy Schurgers.
Master students
2025
- Georgina Wieth-Klitgaard – Environmental drivers of net CO2 and CH4 fluxes in a high Arctic fen in Zackenberg, Northeast Greenland. Supervisor Guy Schurgers.
- Johanna Katharina Goer – Modelling of soil hydrological conditions in the rewetted wetland Skjern Å based on the 1D Richards equation. Supervisor Guy Schurgers and Wim Verbruggen.
- Niklas Winter. Supervisor Bo Elberling.
- Lara Melissa Fritzsche – High-resolution N2O and CH4 emissions during cabbage and fallow seasons in a paddy soil in Vietnam controlled by hydrology and nitrogen availability. Supervisor Bo Elberling.
2024
- Sofie Bredsgaard Kaarde – Investigating GHG exchanges in tropical wetlands. An assessment of drivers of CO2 and CH4 fluxes using in-situ observations and remote sensing. Supervisors Guy Schurgers and Stephanie Horion.
- Emma Helena Normann Donde – Modelling Current and Future CO2 and CH4 Fluxes from a Northern Boreal Peatland. Supervisor Guy Schurgers.
- Asbjørn Skipper Christiansen. Supervisor Rasmus Fensholt and Christian Tøtterup.
Potential project ideas relevant for the Global Wetland Center
Coastal wetlands, affected by continuous sedimentation of mineral and organic matter and high water content, can store large amounts of carbon. Climate change, in particular sea level rise, can alter this ability to store carbon.
To understand the storage of carbon and the fluxes of greenhouse gases from these areas, it is crucial to understand the dynamics of sedimentation and erosion, and the impacts of tidal extremes, long-term sea level dynamics and management.
For a master's thesis, the following topics could be of interest:
- How has the extent of coastal wetlands in Denmark changed over the past decades, what are the underlying processes, and what can be expected for the coming decades? How do these changes affect the amount of organic carbon stored?
- How do sedimentation and erosion, and with that organic matter content, vary in a transect from mud flats to marsh? How will climate change alter this?
- How does coastal protection, e.g. the establishment of dikes, alter carbon storage and greenhouse gases? How would rewetting of such an area affect the greenhouse gas balance?
- How do salt marshes respond to sea-level rise? What are the threshold rates of sea-level rise for salt-marsh deterioration and how does this affect carbon storage?
- How do changes in storm surge frequency influence coastal wetland accretion and burial of carbon?
Contact
Mikkel Fruergaard, mif@ign.ku.dk
Guy Schurgers, gusc@ign.ku.dk
Remote sensing investigation of changes in plant species composition in previously drained peatlands
Rewetting of drained peatlands is currently high on the climate and environmental agenda of many European countries. Yet, our understanding of the effects of rewetting on the ecosystem is still incomplete, and it is also unclear when or whether a return to near-natural vegetation conditions can be observed over rewetted sites (Kreyling et al. 2021).
We are looking for a MSc student interested in investigating changes in species composition over rewetted peatlands combining both field observations and remote sensing time series.
Potential ideas for research questions are:
- What relevant information on plant species composition and its change over time can we derive from optical and/or hyperspectral imagery?
- Can remote sensing support the description of ecosystem conditions (e.g., hydrology and vegetation) pre- and post- rewetting?
- Linked to question 2, how do pre-/post- rewetting conditions influence species composition and a potential return to near-natural vegetation composition?
Reference: Kreyling, J. et al (2021). Rewetting does not return drained fen peatlands to their old selves. Nature Communications (2021) 12:5693, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25619-y
Contact
Stéphanie Horion, smh@ign.ku.dk
Frederikke Krogh Corydon, fkc@ign.ku.dk