M.S. opening to study pedogenesis and restoration in dry sand prairie Mollisols at Michigan State University. The Wessel pedology lab in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences is recruiting an M.S. student to study the impacts of management and possibilities for restoration on the Sparta soil series, which became a highly eroded desert during the Dust Bowl.
This pedological project will focus on the competing and contrasting roles of melanization under prairie grasses and podzolization under red spruce on Sparta soils. Other topics may include the soil seed bank, erosion status, soil taxonomy, biochar and liming, base cation status, or land- use change related to Sparta soils. Expected start in January or summer 2024.
Soil Judging or other experience sampling an describing soils in the field will be valued i applicants, as will experience in GIS, statistics soil chemistry, or experience with prairie plants.
Interested students should send an email and a resume/CV to Dr. Barret Wessel (wesselba@msu.edu).
