All the world’s a stage – of organic matter degradation: a Czech-French Mobility Project

BC-CAS researchers Travis Meador and Marek Kopáček recently initiated a Czech-French collaborative study, entitled Peat Hydrogen and Oxygen Isotopes, that examines the production and transport of molecules along environmental gradients of peatland, stream, and lake ecosystems, where they expect to find samples representing all stages of organic matter degradation.

The Czech team visited labs in Paris and Toulouse, and the Bernadouze peatland in the Pyrenees Mountains in April 2022 to coordinate and harmonize organic matter sampling, isotope hydrology, and molecular characterization protocols across the respective environmental observatories. The research consortium comprises researchers from SoWa and the Institute of Hydrobiology (BC-CAS) and several partner labs across France, including: Arnaud Huguet (METIS, Paris); Laure Gandois (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle Et Environnement, Toulouse); Sarah Coffinet (ECOBIO, Rennes); Guillaume Bertrand (Chrono-Environnement, Besançon); and Frédéric Huneau (University of Corsica Pascal Paoli)Sciences Pour l’Environnement, Corsica).

In accordance with the European Commission’s 2030 Agenda goals, this collaborative project aims to constrain organic matter transformation fluxes and their responses to natural and anthropogenic change in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. The project is ongoing until 2023 and is supported by the MYES Joint Czech-French Mobility funds (Č. j. MSMT-18539/2021-55 ) awarded to Travis Meador (SOWA, BC-CAS; Ceske Budejovice, Czechia ) and PHC Barrande program funds awarded to Arnaud Huguet (CNRS METIS, UPMC Sorbonne Université; Paris, France).

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry platform, Institut des Matériaux de Paris Centre (IMPC; UPMC Sorbonne Université; Paris, France)

Piezometer sampling in the Bernadouze peatland (Ariège, France) [left: Marek Kopaček; right: Laure Gandois]

All stages of organic matter degradation (Bernadouze peatland; Ariège, France)

Photos by Travis B. Meador, licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0