Please note: the closing date for position 1 is very soon - 5 October!

Applications are invited for two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships to participate in the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)-funded project entitled “Permafrost catchments in transition: hydrological controls on carbon cycling and greenhouse gas budgets”. Both posts are available for 3 yrs full-time, and the PDRFs will work closely together, along with the full project team, to meet the objectives of the work-programme.

This project will address the key role that hydrological processes play in landscape-scale C fluxes in arctic and boreal regions. In permafrost catchments in NW Canada (including areas where permafrost is known to be thawing) we will measure the capture of C from the atmosphere (through photosynthesis), its distribution in plants and soils, and the biological, physical and chemical controls of C transport and delivery from soils to freshwaters, and ultimately to the atmosphere as CO2 and CH4 . Field-based measurements of key processes in the water and C cycles, including geochemical tracer and state-of-the-art C, hydrogen and oxygen isotope approaches, will be linked by computer modelling. The project team, together with partners in Canada, the US and UK, is in a unique position to link the water and C cycles in permafrost environments, and will deliver essential scientific knowledge on the potential consequences of climate warming, and permafrost thawing, for GHG emissions from northern high latitudes.

Position I: PDRF in Catchment Science in Arctic Environments, at the University of Aberdeen

The Northern Rivers Institute, School of Geosciences, at the University of Aberdeen invites applications for a Research Fellow in Catchment Science. This post is designed to provide research support in environmental tracer applications and coupled hydrological and biogeochemical modelling. The successful candidate will work at the cutting edge interface between field-based descriptions of catchment hydrological and biogeochemical processes and numerical modeling of water flow and solute transport across scales. Experience with programming in MATLAB, R or another software development tool is essential. The candidate should be exceptional in combining field experimental skills with numerical / computational skills. In addition, experience with incorporation of tracers into hydrological models would be advantageous. The post is based at the University of Aberdeen but involves travel to field sites in Canada as well. The opportunity offers significant potential for professional growth and exposure in Europe and North America.

The aim of this project is to improve our understanding of the implications of climate change for the co-evolution of soil carbon dynamics and moisture regimes by integrating experimental and observational data using ecosystem models in arctic environments. The project will use “state of the art” coupled hydrological and biogeochemical models. Field data using advanced isotope analysis will be used to verify appropriate process conceptualisation in the models.
The modelling will thus provide a learning framework for testing hypotheses about storage, filtering and release of water and carbon to the stream networks. This will integrate information from mapping and monitoring to gain the best understanding achie­vable and will be framed in an assessment of uncertainty that will provide a defensible basis for cautious predictive modelling.

The successful candidate will work under the immediate direction of Professors Doerthe Tetzlaff and Pete Smith in Aberdeen and will join a team comprising another parallel Postdoctoral position (Sheffield/Durham; see Position II, below), in collaboration with Professor Philip Wookey (Sheffield), Dr Bob Baxter (Durham), Dr Jens-Arne Subke (Stirling), Drs Mike Billett and Kerry Dinsmore (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh) and seven Project Partners (from the UK, Canada and the US).

Salary will be at the appropriate point on the Grade 6 scale (£30,122 - £35,938 per annum), with placement according to qualifications and experience.

For informal enquiries or further details, please contact Professor Doerthe Tetzlaff ([email protected]) or Pete Smith ([email protected])

The closing date for the receipt of applications is 5th October 2012.

To apply online for this position visit www.abdn.ac.uk/jobs. *Please quote reference < *(GEO204R), - Ref:1278731 *> on all correspondence *

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Position II: PDRF in Carbon Dynamics of Permafrost Catchments, at the University of Sheffield and at Durham University

The Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield, together with the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Durham University, invite applications for a Research Fellow in Carbon Dynamics of Permafrost Catchments. This post is designed to provide research support in plant-soil and plant-atmosphere interactions and the application of stable isotope and natural abundance radiocarbon approaches to quantify carbon dynamics in contrasting catchment and permafrost contexts.

The principal objective of this post is to quantify and understand the biotic/abiotic controls on C fluxes in permafrost environments, with particular emphasis on the interface between the water and C cycles, and on the implications for global radiative-forcing. The successful candidate will become part of a broader research team, but with specific responsibility for aspects of the work-programme dealing with plant-soil interactions, and with surface-atmosphere exchanges of CO2 and CH4. More specifically, the PDRF and team will develop and implement a range of techniques to (i) quantify catchment-scale patterns of plant community and soil (including permafrost) characteristics, (ii) quantify
CO2 and CH4 fluxes between tundra and forest ecosystems and the atmosphere, and (iii) to determine, using natural-abundance radiocarbon techniques, the turnover times of soil organic matter and respired CO2 (and possibly also CH4) in contrasting permafrost regimes. Whilst the post is joint between Sheffield and Durham (65:35% weighting, respectively), the appointee will be based in Sheffield but spend significant periods carrying out fieldwork in Northwest Territories (http://www.nwtresearch.com) and Yukon Territory, Canada, as well as possible short periods at other collaborating institutions within the UK or abroad. The opportunity offers significant potential for professional growth and exposure in Europe and North America.

The successful candidate will work under the immediate direction of Professor Philip Wookey (Sheffield) and Dr Bob Baxter (Durham), and in collaboration with Dr Jens-Arne Subke (Stirling), Profs Doerthe Tetzlaff and Pete Smith (Aberdeen), and Drs Mike Billett and Kerry Dinsmore (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh). He/she will join a team comprising the above, another parallel Postdoctoral position (Aberdeen) and seven Project Partners (from the UK, Canada and the US).

Starting Salary will be at point ~7.32 on the academic scale (£31.798 per annum), with exact placement according to qualifications and experience.

For informal enquiries or further details, please contact Professor Philip Wookey ([email protected]), Dr Bob Baxter ([email protected]) or Dr Jens Subke ([email protected]). The formal job advert and application procedure will be available in due course.