This position has been filled!
Mixing and chemical reaction hotspots in saline-freshwater mixing zones
The Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC) is offering a PhD scholarship on the topic “Mixing and chemical reaction hotspots in saline-freshwater mixing zones” starting preferably before December 1, 2017. The project is funded by the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network “ENIGMA – EU Training Network for In situ imaGing of dynaMic processes in heterogeneous subsurfAce environments” within the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Commission. ENIGMA is a consortium of high profile universities, research institutions and companies located in France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, USA and UK, and will train 15 PhD students in total (Early Stage Researcher, ESR). This particular PhD (ESR PhD 1) will be based at Barcelona at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC) with research stays at CNRS/University of Rennes (France) and University of Lausanne (Switzerland).
Project description
Mixing across the SW-FW (saltwater freshwater) interface has been the subject of long debate, as it affects karst development, exchange reactions (including mobilization of Radium, used for quantifying nutrients fluxes into the ocean), and biochemical processes. Our conjecture is that mixing is hindered by stable salinity but enhanced by sea level fluctuations, and seasonal variations of temperature and inland recharge. Monitoring these, coupled to field experiments and numerical modeling, should provide new insights into mixing and freshwater displacement in coastal aquifers and subsequent geochemical reactions. This ESR will collaborate with ESRs 9 and 12 on the development and use of novel techniques for the characterization of transport and flow heterogeneity as well as reaction monitoring, which will feed into new theoretical approaches for the identification of mixing and reaction hotspots (see detailed description on the ENIGMA web-site https://enigma-itn.eu). These approaches are based on (i) quantification of flow heterogeneity and fluid deformation, (ii) identification of flow strain and stress centers, which drive concentration gradients and mixing, (iii) the development of mixing and reaction diagnostics to explain and predict observed reaction patterns.
Principal supervisor is Marco Dentz, CSIC Barcelona, E-mail: marco.dentz(at)idaea.csic.es
Department/Location: IDAEA-CSIC Barcelona (www.idaea.csic.es, www.mhetscale.wordpress.com)