Bekker scholarship for three UPWr scientists

• Professor Aleksandra Mirończuk will travel to Spain for a year as part of her research fellowship, where she will study the ability of microorganisms to decompose various types of plastics.
• Estera Trzcina, together with a team of Portuguese scientists, will work on better forecasting of violent weather phenomena using satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) technology.
• Dr Luca Demarchi has received the Bekker scholarship to travel to Australia. The project, conducted with the Centre for Crop Science at the University of Queensland, is to determine the physiological characteristics of plants using hyperspectral remote sensing.

The Bekker scholarship supports the international mobility of doctoral students, researchers and academics to develop academically in foreign research and academic centres.

Trips lasting between three and 24 months will allow researchers to stay in foreign research centres, establish long-term partnerships with them and carry out projects together with scientists from all over the world.

This year, NAWA has allocated PLN 21 000 000 for scholarships, which will be awarded to 77 recipients of the programme.

Can microorganisms completely decompose plastics?

Professor Aleksandra Mirończuk will travel to Spain for a year as part of her scientific exchange, where she will work with Prof. Damià Barceló from the Catalan Institute for Water Research Foundation (ICRA), which is closely linked to the University of Girona in Spain. Scientists there are involved in research related to water, its circulation and quality in terms of chemical, microbiological or ecological aspects, among others, as well as technology upgrading and knowledge transfer. Together, the scientists will study the ability of microorganisms to break down different types of plastics.

The problem of environmental pollution from microplastics is becoming increasingly serious. Studies indicate that plastics are leaking uncontrollably into the environment, where they break down into smaller and smaller fragments, taking on different sized forms. Sea currents carry them around the world, they find their way into protected regions through air currents, and they end up in groundwater with precipitation. A recent study by a team of scientists from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shows that various types of microplastics have been detected in the blood of more than 70% of young people, which can adversely affect health.

In the project, Prof Mirończuk plans to investigate the ability of microorganisms, specifically the genetically modified yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, to degrade various types of plastics, such as high and low density polyethylene, polystyrene or polypropylene. To test the ability of microorganisms to carry out these processes, it is necessary to establish procedures for the detection of microplastics in post-culture fluids after the process.

– The problem with microplastics and testing the ability of microorganisms to decompose them is that there are no methods for detecting their actual decomposition. If we want to decompose plastic, we can subject it to the enzyme produced by modified yeast, but we don’t know whether it is actually completely decomposed or fragmented into smaller and smaller fragments – explains Prof. Mirończuk, emphasising that microplastics are more harmful than large plastic waste because they can directly reach our organism through water which we drink.

To check whether the microorganisms in question are able to completely decompose the microplastics, Prof. Mirończuk and her team will use the pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (pyr-GC) research method, i.e. combustion at high temperature - above 600 oC - without oxygen. The end product will then become a volatile fraction and the remaining microplastic content will be determined using a detector.

– During my internship, I will optimise the method for detecting microplastics in culture fluids. So suppose we have a liquid culture of microorganisms in which there will be 1 gram of microplastic at the start of the process. If, at the end of the fermentation process, we detect 0.25g of microplastic, we will know that 75% has been broken down into monomers, which are no longer harmful because they are not plastic. This will confirm that the particular enzyme produced by the yeast is working and it will be possible to use it on a larger scale – explains Prof Mirończuk.

As part of the grant, Prof Mirończuk received almost 180,000 zloty for her scientific exchange.

Improved forecasting of severe weather events

As part of the scholarship, Estera Trzcina, a research assistant at the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics, will go to Portugal for a year to the University of Lisbon's Dom Luiz Institute at the Faculty of Science, where her scientific supervisors will be Prof. Pedro Miranda and Dr. Pedro Mateus. Together with the team of Portuguese scientists, she will study the impact of multiscale assimilation of InSAR data on forecasting severe weather events. Her grant from the Bekker programme amounted to PLN 155,000.

Water vapour is one of the main components of atmospheric thermodynamics, sothe circulation of warm air in the gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth. The high variability of the amount of water vapour depending on location and time in the lowest layer of the atmosphere contributes to the formation of convection cells at altitudes of 2-20 km. This leads to extreme weather phenomena such as thunderstorms. These in turn have catastrophic consequences for people and the environment. The ability to accurately predict water vapour dynamics in the troposphere is therefore crucial to reducing the negative effects of severe weather events.

Capturing small changes in water vapour in the troposphere, a layer reaching up to about 12-18 km above the Earth's surface, requires high-resolution observations of the processes that create the moisture gradient in the troposphere. According to Estera Trzcina, one tool for observing water vapour in the lower atmosphere is the satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) technique. Initially, this technique was mainly used to detect deformations and changes in the Earth's surface, but more recently it has even been used to map the distribution of water vapour. The signal from the satellite, passing through the Earth's atmosphere, stores information about its structure; from this, the vapour density is determined. – The biggest advantage of such maps created with InSAR technology is their high spatial resolution. This demonstrates the high potential for detecting rapid changes in the amount of water vapour at the convective scale – explains Estera Trzcina.

Currently, the main method of using observations of the state of the troposphere in meteorology is their assimilation into numerical weather prediction models, i.e. data analysis that takes into account both measurements and the results of the prediction model. – Currently, assimilation of water vapour distribution maps from InSAR data is not possible at full spatial resolution due to limitations of assimilation techniques – says the research assistant at the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics at UPWr.

As part of the project, Estera Trzcina will work with scientists experienced in improving data assimilation techniques for numerical weather prediction models.  The project with scientists from the Dom Luiz Institute provides an opportunity to develop a methodology for assimilating water vapour distribution maps with full spatial resolution to enable accurate forecasting of severe weather events such as thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes and violent wind gusts. – The analysis of different approaches to the assimilation of high-resolution water vapour maps acquired with the InSAR technique will be a step towards fully using the potential of these observations – emphasises Estera Trzcina.

Supporting sustainable agriculture

Dr. Luca Demarchi who deals with optical remote sensing applications at UPWr, was also awarded the scholarship. He has a part-time engagement to support the SpaceOS Leading Research Group in projects related to optical remote sensing and to the preparation of new project proposal submissions. 

His research scholarship concerns a project on physiological plant traits retrieved from hyperspectral remote sensing for enhancing crop stress detection and food production optimization 

– Sustainable agriculture is a major challenge for mankind. Improving crop stress detection and monitoring is necessary for more efficient management practices in food production. Hyperspectral (HS) technologies allow unprecedented potentiality to assess vegetation conditions, offering new instruments for precision agriculture and resource management – explains the scientist.

Hyperspectral techniques are image acquisition techniques that record the electromagnetic spectrum beyond the visible light perceived by human eyes, providing a wide range of wavelengths at fine wavelength resolution.

The team of scientists plans to make progress in the understanding of how plant functioning impacts the variability of yields, through crop stress detection. – Results of the project will provide key assets in support to the agricultural science and industry, in need of accurate tools to enhance crop management and yields in a sustainable way and hence face the current global challenges – says Dr. Demarchi.

The project is meant to be held with the Centre for Crop Science (CCS), a research centre within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at Queensland University in Australia. However, due to personal reasons, Dr. Demarchi is yet to decide if he will be proceeding with the scholarship.

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