Corinna Byrne has been studying the processes that lead to the conservation of carbon in the soil since 2004. She is investigating the organic matter (OM) in representative Irish agricultural soils and the ways in which the OM is linked to other soil components and affects the soil’s structure. She is also studying the roperties of the dissolved organic carbon in the drainage water from her sample soils. Her work involves the extraction and fractionation of the humic substances from the soil and their analysis using advanced techniques including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR), Infra-red Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infra-red Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT-ICR) Mass Spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography.
In October 2008 she joined Feasta as the co-ordinator and lead researcher on the Carbon Cycle and Sinks (CCSN) project funded by the Department of the Environment. Her work on this, which will proceed in tandem with her personal soil carbon work, involves guiding and co-ordinating a collective thinking and research process aimed at coming up with policy recommendations that not only reduce agricultural and bogland emissions but also hold out the possibility of turning the land into a net emissions sink rather than a net source.
Contact details
Chemical & Environmental Sciences Dept.
University of Limerick,
Ireland
Mobile: +353 87 6464634
Lab: +353 61 213448
Email: corinna.byrne@ul.ie
Presentations and Publications
1. Byrne, C.M., Hayes, M., Clapp, C.E. 2004. ‘Transformations of Plants to Humic Substances. Proc. 12th Meeting, International Humic Substances Society (Sao Pedro). P. 247-250.
2. Byrne, C.M., Fay, D., Ferreria J.A., Hayes, M.H.B, C 2005. ‘The nature of sequestered carbon in different Irish mineral soils’. Proceedings of the XX International Grassland Congress. P. 597.
3. Byrne, C.M., Novotny, E.H., Fay, D. and Hayes, M.H.B. 2006. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy studies of Humic Substances isolated from an Irish grassland soil. Proceedings of the Agricultural Research Forum 2006.
4. Byrne, C.M., Novotny, E.H., Bonagamba, T.J., Fay, D. and Hayes, M.H.B. 2006 The nature of sequestered carbon in an Irish grassland soil. Proc. 13th Meeting, International Humic Substances Society (Karlsruhe), P. 153-156.
5. Byrne, C.M. 2007. Studies of the Organic Matter Components in representative agricultural soils and dissolved organic carbon losses from these soils. Transfer thesis submitted to the University of Limerick.
6. Byrne, C.M., Novotny, E.H., Hatcher, P.G. and Hayes, M.H.B. 2008. Insights into the composition of Humin from an Irish Grassland soil. Submitted to 14th Meeting, International Humic Substances Society (Russia).
7. Byrne, C.M., Fay, D., Ferreria J.A., Hayes, M.H.B. Influence of cultivation on the organic carbon content at various depths in selected Irish soils. Poster EPA Soils Workshop 2006.
8. Evidence for the presence of Cutin in Humin using HR-MAS NMR – In prep.
9. Analysis of DOC isolated from Irish Grassland Drainage Water using FT-ICR-MS and NMR- In prep.
10. Compositional Changes in Drainage Water Dissolved Organic Matter under Different Land Management Practices.- In Prep.
11. Carbon Cycles and Sinks Network. Irbea Conference Presentation Jan 2009