Hi! I’m Anna, a master’s student in the BTF group. I will be writing my master’s thesis on interaction of global change drivers on carbon dynamics in Afromontane grasslands, with Aud Halbritter as my main supervisor.
In May (3–8 May), I had the opportunity to attend the European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU) in Vienna and present preliminary results from my fieldwork (read about the fieldwork here). As I’m currently on exchange in Würzburg, Germany, I traveled to Vienna by direct bus and enjoyed a relaxed nine-hour journey before the busy conference started.
This conference was my first experience attending a scientific conference. With around 19,000 participants and multiple parallel sessions, EGU felt quite overwhelming at first, but with the help of the EGU app and as the week progressed, I adapted and ended up enjoying the conference a lot.
My goals for the conference were to learn more about biogeosciences and terrestrial ecosystem responses to global change, to gain an impression of what researchers in my field are currently working on, and where the field is heading. And of course to present my own poster (preliminary results from ecosystem gas fluxes measurements in the Drakensbergs), receive feedback on the work and figures, and gain ideas and inspiration to further explore our data.
The conference turned out to meet my expectations and I had many interesting conversations with researchers from different backgrounds, particularly during the poster sessions and my own presentation. I realized that emerging questions in this field often focus on the interaction of multiple global change drivers in ecosystems, which feels particularly relevant to my own master thesis on the interaction of warming, nitrogen deposition and grazing as global change drivers. Looking back, I especially appreciate the challenging questions I received during my presentation, as I now have time to explore these topics in more depth. All in all, it was a very valuable and inspiring week.
After sessions I enjoyed exploring Vienna and getting to know other early-career scientists as well as more experienced researchers, both within and beyond my field. I also greatly appreciated the company of fellow BTF members Bente, Sonya, and Jeanne throughout the week.
I would like to thank the NatuRA project and my main supervisor, Aud Halbritter, for the opportunity and support. I also thank BTF members for their great company during EGU. I would especially like to thank my field supervisors, Joseph Gaudard and Kim Holzmann, who encouraged me early in my master’s programme to aim for attending this conference, making it possible to gain conference experience early in my studies and, hopefully, attend more conferences during my master’s degree.
