Alex Houston

🔔Job alert: Postdoc working on Contribution of Blue carbon Ecosystems to climate change mitigation with Prof Hilary Kennedy @sosbangor.bsky.social 🧪

jobs.bangor.ac.uk/details.php....

📢 I was interviewed by GO-BC to discuss my recent publication on additionality in Blue Carbon methodologies.

Check it out here: www.go-bc.co.uk/blue-carbon-...

Interested in finding out more about the research? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

📣New Competition Funded @iapetusdtp.bsky.social PhD Opportunity

Deadline: 3rd of January 2025

The project will be co-supervised by myself, @fredworrall.bsky.social and Jessica Elise (Natural England).

Project Outline: tinyurl.com/7nvsmc53

How to apply: iapetus2.ac.uk/how-to-apply/

Heading home from #AGU24. Had a great time sharing science and learning lots. Now time to finish writing my thesis...

@bluecarbonalex.bsky.social great talk at #AGU24 !

Read up on his published paper in L&O 2024 Houston et al.

Radiocarbon vs bioavailability of carbon in Scottish marshes

Thanks!

📢1 year funded Masters by Research available at the University of St Andrews

The project will focus on developing of rapid, low cost tools to quantify soil organic carbon in coastal and terrestrial environments.

Funded by R&A foundation
Deadline: 31st of Jan
Full details - tinyurl.com/5n7as37k

https://iapetus2.ac.uk/studentships/blue-carbon-accumulation-transformation-and-storage-quantifying-biogeochemical-processes-in-saltmarsh-ecosystems/

📣New Funded PhD Opportunity

The project will be co-supervised by myself, @fredworrall.bsky.social and Jessica Elise (Natural England).

Deadline: 3rd of January 2025

How to apply: iapetus2.ac.uk/how-to-apply/

This is one of my PhD chapters and I am happy to talk about any comments/questions.

Hopefully there will be some interesting discussion throughout the review process!

Blue carbon additionality: New insights from the radiocarbon content of saltmarsh soils and their respired CO2 International policy frameworks recognize the net drawdown and storage of atmospheric greenhouse gases through management interventions on blue carbon ecosystems (saltmarshes, mangroves, seagrasses) ...

Interestingly, the CO2 respired from incubations of these same soils was closest in age to the most labile ramped oxidation fraction - indicating that the respired CO2 was from a thermally labile organic carbon pool.

aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

@asloorg.bsky.social

We measured the age of Saltmarsh soil organic carbon reactivity fractions using a thermal method (ramped oxidation).

We found that younger carbon tended to be more labile (reactive) than older sources of carbon.

Old Carbon, New Insights: Thermal Reactivity and Bioavailability of Saltmarsh Soils Abstract. Saltmarshes are globally important coastal wetlands which can store carbon for millennia, helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change. They accumulate organic carbon from both autochth...

New pre-print available online for discussion: "Old Carbon, New Insights: Thermal Reactivity and Bioavailability of Saltmarsh Soils".

egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...

@eurogeosciences.bsky.social

Many thanks to the Global Change Biology editorial team, Dan Friess, and one anonymous reviewer for their constructive and helpful reviews.

We advocate for the inclusion of allochthonous OC in BC crediting projects when an observational and experimental approach does not support the calculation (and discounting) of the refractory allochthonous carbon contribution.

We find that there are currently no robust scientific approaches to define an appropriate apportioning of allochthonous OC for discounting in the calculation of additionality.

We compare the blue carbon methodologies which we were able to find online, and review the science underlying any approach to account for allochthonous OC.

An ongoing debate is whether OC sequestered out with the blue carbon project and transported to its present location (allochthonous) should be counted as ‘additional’.

We review the treatment of allochthonous carbon in blue carbon accounting methodologies like Verra VM0033 and IPCC Wetlands Supplement.

Additionality in Blue Carbon Ecosystems: Recommendations for a Universally Applicable Accounting Methodology The protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems may contribute to net greenhouse gas emissions abatement and help address the global challenges of both mitigating and adapting to climate cha...

📢New first author opinion article in Global Change Biology!

“Additionality in Blue Carbon Ecosystems: Recommendations for a Universally Applicable Accounting Methodology”

Thread below👇

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New Fully funded World Leading PhD Studentship
at the University of St Andrews with myself and @mudwaterclimate.bsky.social looking at:

The role of Calcium Carbonate in blue carbon environments.

Deadline- 2nd of Feb 24 Open to UK and International
applicants

tinyurl.com/cwfew92f

Please add me to the list!
superdtp.st-andrews.ac.uk/alex-houston...