Mengqi Jia

I am a PhD student in the Hydrogeology group in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. Amazed by how Earth system originated, developed and evolved, I am broadly interested in Hydrosphere-Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions (HBAI) in the Earth system. Studying these interactions requires an interdisciplinary approach, combining soil hydrology, geochemistry, microbiology and ecology. My current research focuses on advancing fundamental understanding and predictive capabilities of greenhouse gas (GHG) generation, transport and emissions in agricultural soil systems. This topic is explored by (i) benchmarking reactive transport models focusing on the most important processes controlling C-cycling in soils, (ii) developing uniform and discrete reactive transport modeling approaches to investigate C and N cycling in soils, (iii) developing a dual-porosity/permeability approach accounting for gas exchange between macropores and the soil matrix and its effects on GHG exchange with the atmosphere, and (iv) development of a trait-based approach to study microbial dynamics affecting GHG generation and consumption. Data mining and code development of the reactive transport code MIN3P-HPC (D. Su, U. Mayer, UBC) are integral parts of this research. My work will contribute towards building RTM simulation capabilities to simulate complex GHG-cycling in dynamic soil environments.