Kate Kuntu-Blankson

Agroscope (Reckenholz)
Climate and Agriculture Group
Reckenholzstrasse 191 8046 Zurich
Switzerland www.agroscope.ch
Email:

My PhD research is under the SNSF project REFGRASS (Towards Representative N2O Emission Factors for Grazing Systems in Switzerland) lead by Agroscope’s Climate and Agriculture group in Reckenholz. The main objective of my research under the project is to use ecosys-a biogeochemical ecosystem model to aid in the development of a scientific basis for establishing country-specific (Tier 2) N2O emission factor (EF) for grazing-related excreta (urine and dung) deposition on pastures in Switzerland. For a first step, I will test and apply the ecosys model at patch and field scale to simulate observed N2O emissions from artificially applied dung and urine patches. I will then calibrate ecosys with available field/patch scale data and make simulations for typical environmental conditions of relevant Swiss grassland areas. The results will give an estimate of regional variations in grazing related EF within Switzerland from which suggestions for country-specific grazing-related EF may be derived.

I work at Agroscope under the supervision of Dr. Christof Anmmann and Dr. Pierluigi Calanca, Prof. Johan Six serves as my PhD thesis supervisor at ETH Zurich.

Working Experience

2019 Student Researcher at Institute of Grasslands, University of Goettingen, Germany 2017 Student Researcher at International Centre of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Nairobi-Kenya

Education

2020 PhD candidate at Agroscope (Climate and Agriculture research group)

2019 M.Sc Sustainable International Agriculture, specialization in Tropical Agriculture

2012 B.Sc Agricultural Sciences, specialization in Crop Sciences