Qin Weigeng

Gaseous Emissions from Agriculture Group
School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL
Bern University of Applied Sciences
Länggasse 85,
3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland
E-Mail:

Research interest

During my previous studies on hydrology and geohydrology, I had the opportunity to explore how water fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems are altered by climate change. This experience sparked my passion for improving our understanding of ecosystems' responses to climate change using the newly developed eddy covariance (EC) technique.

Since September 2024, I am excited to continue pursuing my interests. As part of my PhD study, I have the privilege of participating in the SNF-funded project, "Following the Nitrogen Fluxes from Agricultural Losses via Deposition into Wetland Ecosystems Causing Climate Impacts." This project aims to: (i) quantify agricultural NH3 emissions as losses from farms and their deposition gradient along the plume; (ii) measure net NH3 fluxes in wetlands using the newly developed high-frequency open-path EC technique; (iii) investigate short-term changes in ecosystem functioning following high nitrogen input scenarios; and (iv) relate ecosystem processes to measured GHG fluxes and carbon sequestration potentials.
I will focus on objectives one and two, with specific work including NH3 flux measurements using the EC technique, flux driver analyses, and bi-directional NH3 modeling. I am also excited to explore how the wetland ecosystem, including ecosystem composition, soil microbial processes, and GHG fluxes, responds to nitrogen input.
Currently, I work at Bern University of Applied Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Alex Constantin Valach, with Prof. Johan Six serving as my PhD thesis supervisor at ETH Zurich. You are more than welcome to reach out if you'd like to learn more about my work or discuss potential collaboration opportunities.

Education:
2024 September - Present: PhD student at Bern University of Applied Sciences
2021-2024         Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Groundwater and Global Change – Impacts and Adaptation, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal; IHE Delft, the Netherlands; Technical University of Dresden, Germany
2016-2020 B. Eng Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering, Wuhan University, China

Work experience:
2023 August - 2024 March, Intern at UNDRR and UNFCCC
2023 April - 2023 September, Student research assistant at UFZ-Leipzig