PhD position (f/m/x) – Climate extremes in tropical ecosystems - an assessment through data and models Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung

PhD position (f/m/x) – Climate extremes in tropical ecosystems - an assessment through data and models Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung - UFZ

https://recruitingapp-5128.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/2021/Description/2

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.

The newly established Department of Remote Sensing in UFZ in tandem with the Remote Sensing Centre for Earth System Research (RSC4Earth.de) - a joint initiative of UFZ and the Faculty of Physics and Earth Sciences at Leipzig University - conducts innovative research to advance the understanding of the Earth system via the integration of various remote sensing, data science, and process-oriented modelling techniques. It has extensive research experience in quantifying land surface dynamics from multi-source Earth observations across scales.

Within the PhD framework "MoDEV - Towards novel model-data fusion for understanding environmental variability in space and time from high-resolution remote sensing" we are seeking to appoint a highly motivated candidate for the PhD project on "Climate extremes in tropical ecosystems - an assessment through data and models".

PhD position (f/m/x) – Climate extremes in tropical ecosystems - an assessment through data and models

Working time: 65% (25.35 hours per week), limited to 3 years

Your tasks:

This PhD project aims to understand the impact of extreme events (e.g. drought, heat wave) on ecosystem dynamics in the tropics. We are interested in understanding the role of land-surface dynamics on different ecosystems based on satellite observations and model simulations. Key research questions include:

What are the spatiotemporal dynamics of climate-induced extreme events in tropical forests and how do their impacts and characteristics change regionally as a function of environmental conditions?

What is the role of species and structural diversity in buffering the impacts of climate extremes; can we describe gradients of resilience within tropical forest ecosystems?

To achieve this goal, optimal data-fusion strategies for merging satellite remote sensing data and models with different spatial and temporal resolutions shall be developed

The PhD project will be supervised by Prof. Miguel Mahecha (UFZ and Leipzig University) and Prof. Andreas Huth (UFZ).

Your profile:

Master degree (or equivalent) in Earth system (data-) science, computer sciences, remote sensing, hydrology, meteorology, applied mathematics, or any related field.

Fluency in one language of scientific computing (e.g., Julia, Python, Fortran, R)

Ideally a solid background in either machine-learning or dynamical modelling

Genuine interest in understanding how the Earth system works!

Willingness to publish results in peer-reviewed journals and present at scientific meetings

Good communication skills in English, and strong interest to work in an interdisciplinary research team

We offer:

Excellent technical facilities which are without parallel

The freedom you need to bridge the difficult gap between basic research and close to being ready for application

Work in interdisciplinary, multinational teams

Excellent links with national and international research networks

Excellent support and optimal subject-specific and general training with our HIGRADE graduate school

Remuneration in accordance with the TVöD public-sector pay grade 13 (65%)

Vineesh V
Assistant Professor of Geography,
Directorate of Education,
Government of Kerala.
https://www.facebook.com/Applied.Geography
http://geogisgeo.blogspot.com

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