معرفی
Xudan Zhu is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences within the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research focuses on environmental biogeochemistry, particularly the dynamics of dissolved organic carbon in boreal ecosystems.
Dr. Zhu completed her doctoral degree at the University of Eastern Finland with a dissertation titled 'The mechanisms behind aquatic browning in boreal catchments' (2024), which investigated the complex processes driving increased dissolved organic carbon in northern water bodies.
Her research interests span multiple interconnected areas of environmental science. She investigates carbon cycling in boreal peatland forests, focusing on how water table fluctuations, forest management practices, and nutrient availability affect dissolved organic carbon biodegradability. Her work also encompasses water quality monitoring using advanced spectroscopic techniques, particularly portable UV-Vis spectrophotometry for measuring dissolved organic carbon and iron content in remote areas. Dr. Zhu's research has demonstrated that DOC concentrations decrease in drained peatland forests with both low water table and glucose addition, while clearcutting alone has no clear effects. She has also found that the biodegradation rate of recalcitrant DOC is nitrogen-limited and dependent on DOC quality, which can be seasonally variable.
Dr. Zhu has developed expertise in applying advanced analytical techniques to environmental monitoring challenges, particularly in remote field settings. Her work on portable UV-Vis spectrophotometry has demonstrated its effectiveness for high-frequency water quality monitoring across different watersheds, with absorbances measured by in-situ sensors explaining 96% of the absorbance data from laboratory benchtop instruments.
- Kone Foundation project 'The role of terrestrial productivity on fluxes of dissolved organic carbon in watersheds'
- Water JPI and Academy of Finland project REFORMWATER (Academy of Finland project number 326818)
Her collaborative research with the Krycklan Catchment Study (funded by the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science) addresses important questions about the impacts of forest management on water quality and carbon cycling in boreal ecosystems.
