Our new topics for prom 2023-2024 and beyond are now released, fresh out from our team research :
you are a carbon nerd, just like us? willing to fool around on the LExplore platform, for a 24H cycle or more? Want to breathe the fresh air of mountain lakes? want to connect with management?
instead, willing to explore the field of climate change communication in the media?
There might be something for you…
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- quantification of Quagga mussels densities and impacts on Lake Geneva
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Type of research : Field measurements and lab experiments, data analysis
Outline: Quagga mussels invaded Lake Geneva in 2016, and have been spreading and developing down to the lake bottom since then. Quagga mussels are filet-feeding bivalves, pumping and filtering huge amounts of water every day. The settlement and development of quagga mussels in Lake Geneva is expected to generate massive changes in lake water transparency, nutrient cycling, oxygen consumption at depth and biodiversity.
The student will conduct a field survey in Lake Geneva in order to assess the spatial distribution of quagga mussels in the lake, and an estimation of their overall population. using lab and field experiment, he/she will assess the quagga’s filtration and respiration rates. Using data from the long-term dataset, the student will test whether the invasion by quaggas have already shifted biogeochemical cycles in the lake.
2. Metabolism of high-altitude lakes
Type of research : Field measurements , sensors technologies, data analysis
Outline:
Metabolism, i.e. the balance between biotic mechanisms of oxygen consumption and production (i.e. respiration versus primary production) is a functional metric of lake ecosystems. It allows to compare, with a similar currency, lake ecosystem that can vary in size, depth, biodiversity and geology. What regulates the metabolism of alpine lakes between ecosystems, seasons and years is virtually unknown. We however have pluri-annual high-frequency datasets of oxygen concentrations over > 25 lakes in the French Alps by which metabolism can be computed, included under the ice.
The student will compute the metabolism for all lakes and years for which data are available and evaluate which are the drivers of the metabolism variability. The student will take part to field campaigns and work in interaction with the “reseat lacs sentinelles”.
3. Changes in climate change coverage in the media since the Ukraine war
Type of research : data analysis, text mining
Outline:
The media coverage of climate change issues has significantly increased over the last decade. However, the media treatment of climate change,i.e. how the information is relayed has been poorly studied. Recently, we show that for instance, the media coverage of climate change sciences is strongly biased towards natural sciences, providing end of the century global projections, while this monolithic approach of climate change research is likely to undermine its effects on the reader, and their willingness to act. Here, we want to assess how the climate change issues are covered in the media (French speaking or English speaking media), and whether such trends have changed since the energy crisis driven by the Ukraine war.
The student will retrieve articles from the set of selected media news and use automated text-mining to analyse the content and newspaper section (science, politics, lifestyle..) in which contents have been published.
Contact marie-elodie.perga@unil.ch if interested