Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung – UFZ
Master Thesis: Undersowing for mitigating manure-based hazards to corn production
🇧🇪Leipzig, Flanders, Belgium25 days ago
EntryFull TimeEN
Your contact for any questions you may have about the job:
lena.mellin[at]ufz.de
Please submit your application via our online portal with your cover letter, CV (please omit your photo, age, or marital status) and relevant attachments.
The UFZ has a strong commitment to diversity and actively supports equal opportunities for all employees regardless of their origin, religion, ideology, disability, age or sexual identity.
We look forward to applications from people who are open-minded and enjoy working in diverse teams.
The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) with its 1,100 employees has gained an excellent reputation as an international competence centre for environmental sciences. We are part of the largest scientific organisation in Germany, the Helmholtz association. Our mission: Our research seeks to find a balance between social development and the long-term protection of our natural resources.
Manure is a valuable resource in agriculture, but can contain harmful metals and antibiotics, posing risks to plant health, spread of resistance genes, and contaminated food. Additionally, although the permissible amount of manure that can be applied depends primarily on its nitrate content, differences in soil mineralization rates can lead to an excess of nitrate in the soil from manure amendment, resulting in nitrate leaching to groundwater.
The use of undersown plants refers to the cultivation of plants simultaneously to the main crop with the aim of reducing soil erosion and evaporation and increasing the soil biota biodiversity. These plants may also offer potential for managing risks associated with manure, as they could potentially extract or immobilize metals, degrade antibiotics or take up excess nitrate. Although there have been studies on the potential of agricultural plants to remove single groups of pollutants from the soil, no study has yet investigated the potential of undersown crops to reduce the risk of combined pollution for cash crops.
The Master´s thesis will be carried out in the setup of a 6-hectare field experiment with the cash crop corn in close collaboration with farmers who own the field. The aim of the experiment is to compare three agronomically new undersown species in terms of their potential to reduce nitrate leaching and mitigate metal and antibiotic hazards posed by manure to corn. In order to assess whether the cultivation of undersown crops impairs corn health and growth, plant physiological parameters of corn with and without undersown crops will be compared. These studies can provide farmers with important information for selecting an undersown crop for fields on which manure-based hazards represents a threat.
We are looking for a Master's student with a background in geochemistry who will focus on the analysis of nitrate and metals.
The field experiment will run from March to September in Rheinland-Pfalz, with four sampling events taking place during this period. The Master´s student will participate in the sampling (travel and accommodation will be covered by the UFZ) and subsequently process their respective samples in the UFZ labs in Halle and in Leipzig, depending on the applied tool.
Next to performing the field and lab work, the Master´s student will learn how to process, integrate and interpret the data and receive guidance on writing their thesis. The Master´s student will be full and valued members of both the Soil Ecology Working Group in Halle and the Plant Biogeochemistry Working Group in Leipzig, with opportunity to participate in meetings/lectures and present their work.
The positions are expected to start on July 1st 2026 latest. There is the option of completing internships before the actual beginning of the thesis. Supervisions will be either in English or in German. These are unpaid positions.
Application deadline: 28.04.2026
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