Sabina Sulikova

I am a DPhil student on the RIV-ESCAPE project. I am interested in understanding changes in the carbon cycle due to the influence of climate change. My DPhil project investigates greenhouse gas release from warming rivers in the Arctic.

With a focus on geochemical analysis of stable and radioactive isotopes, the research will provide important insight into understanding the sources and release of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. There are significant gaps in our knowledge of the driving factors of organic and inorganic carbon cycling in Arctic catchments and how these evolve with past and future climate change. These processes are important to understand and quantify as they act as sources of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, with wider implications for the Earth’s long-term climate and carbon cycle. I have carried out fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic and collected samples from the Mackenzie River Delta, as well as rivers draining into the Yukon in the Arctic and Subarctic. I will also carry out analysis of previously collected samples. I am supervised by Prof Bob Hilton, and I am funded via the ERC scholarship.

I have previously completed a BSc at the University of St Andrews, and an MSc in Geoscience at University College London.