Flora Desmet

Flora Desmet

Postdoctoral researcher

Agroscope

Biography

I’m Flora, a postdoctoral researcher in the Climate and Agriculture Group at Agroscope, Switzerland.

My work aims at better characterizing and quantifying the climate benefit of carbon farming solutions. Via the calculation of radiative forcing (i.e., the change in energy balance at the top of the atmosphere due to a change in a driver of climate change, such as CO$_2$ atmospheric concentration), I aim at better accounting for possible non-permanency of carbon sequestration and trade-offs between greenhouse gas.

Besides work, I am enjoying outdoor adventures, both at sea and in the mountains.

Interests
  • Climate change mitigation and adaptation
  • Carbon farming
  • Modeling
Education

  • PhD in Environmental Sciences, 2022

    ETH Zürich, Switzerland

  • MSc in Mechanical Engineering, 2018

    INSA Lyon, France

Research projects 🔬

Click on each project to learn more.

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All Monitoring, Reporting & Verification systems for carbon farming Tracking oceanic extreme events Impact of climate change on acidity extremes events
Monitoring, Reporting & Verification (MRV) systems for carbon farming (MARVIC)
I am involved in MARVIC, an EU SOIL MISSION project developing a framework for the design of harmonized, context-specific MRV systems for carbon removals by agricultural activities. In this project, my research focuses on the climate benefit of carbon farming solutions. I compute the radiative forcing of various carbon farming practices, with the aim of accounting for possible non-permanency of carbon sequestration and trade-offs between greenhouse gas.
Space-time evolution of ocean weather extreme events
Extreme events, such as heatwaves or droughts, have severe environmental and socio-economic impacts on land. The same applies to the ocean, where extreme events impact ecosystems and the ocean biogeochemistry. Yet, knowledge on marine extreme events remains limited. In this project, which is part of my PhD thesis, I uncovered the space-time characteristics and leading mechanisms of ocean acidity extreme events, defined as spatiotemporal coherent volumes of rare pH and Aragonite (mineral form of CaCO$_3$) conditions. By tracking volumes of extreme acidity conditions in space and time, we also gained insight into the timescales and length scales of extreme conditions perceived by drifting marine organisms.
Space-time evolution of ocean weather extreme events
Long-term changes in ocean acidity extreme events in the context of atmospheric CO$_2$ rise
Driven by the increase in atmospheric CO$_2$ the frequency and intensity of ocean acidity extreme events rapidly increase. In this project, which is also part of my PhD thesis, I quantified the spatially varying rates of increase in such extreme events in the last four decades. By gaining knowledge about past and present evolution, we also aim at better assessing future changes.

Open source softwares 🧑🏽‍💻

TRACE-X

A Python code that detects and tracks in time spatially (3D) coherent structures of extreme conditions in large model output, such as Earth System Models output.

Publications

Peer reviewed publications

  • Desmet, F., Münnich, M., Gruber, N., Spatiotemporal heterogeneity in the increase of ocean acidity extremes in the Northeast Pacific. Biogeosciences,(2023).
  • Bednaršek, N., Feely, R. A., Pelletier, G., Desmet, F., Global synthesis of the status and trends of ocean acidification impacts on shelled pteropods. Oceanography, (2023).
  • Desmet, F., Gruber, N., Köhn, E. E., Münnich, M., Vogt, M., Tracking the space-time evolution of ocean acidification extremes in the California Current System and Northeast Pacific. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 127, (2022).
  • Köhn, E. E., Münnich, M., Vogt, M., Desmet, F., Gruber, N., Strong habitat compression by extreme shoaling events of hypoxic waters in the Eastern Pacific. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 127, (2022).

Thesis

Proceedings

  • Desmet, F., Raffourt, C., Magnin, A., Porous media subjected to the swell: specific surface, arrangement and shape parameter of porous media, XVth National coastal engineering days, doi:10.5150/jngcgc.2018.048, (2018).