Jianqiu Zheng

Jianqiu Zheng
  • Post Graduate

Biography

Research and Duties After Graduation

Jianqiu will be joining the Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a member of the Microbial Ecology and Physiology group headed by Dr. David E. Graham. She will be part of the biogeochemistry team that is working on the Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments project (NGEE Arctic). A goal of NGEE Arctic is to reduce uncertainties in estimates of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions from high-latitude ecosystems by advancing understanding of the environmental drivers of biogeochemical processes across molecular to landscape scales.

Research While at Michigan Tech

Jianqiu’s thesis research focused on developing an enzyme-explicit model of the biological regulation of denitrification to improve predictions of nitrous oxide (N2O) accumulations in soil and emissions from the surface. Cultivated soils are a globally important source of N2O, which is a long-lived greenhouse gas and the principal biogenic source of stratospheric N2O that contributes to destruction of the ozone layer. Sections of soil cores were incubated in the laboratory and used to develop a metabolic model of denitrification and a rainfall simulation study was performed to examine the kinetics of denitrification in a soybean field. Incorporating explicit representations of denitrification enzyme kinetics into a soil gas diffusion model accurately simulated production and reduction of N2O in the cultivated soil and emissions of N2O from the surface following a rainfall event.

Position after Graduation

  • Title: Postdoctoral Research Associate
  • Group: Microbial Ecology and Physiology Group
  • Institute: Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory