Postdoc: Wind power vs bats (Germany)

At Trier University's 'Trier Center for Sustainable Systems (TriCSS)',
financed by the 'Forschungsinitiative des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz'
will be available one

postdoc position (100% E 13 TV‐L) for the period 1 January 2014 to 31
December 2016

in the field "wind power inside forests versus bat protection –
development of prognostic tools for estimating threats to bat populations
by wind turbines".

The issue of wind energy versus biodiversity is highly relevant. Te
estimated land requirements for wind energy plants within forest stands
(Rhineland-Palatinate for instance wants to use 2% of its total forest
area for generating wind energy) fosters a lasting conflict with other
values added such as the timber industry, local recreation, tourism
and biodiversity (particularly birds and bats). In the framework of the
European Natura 2000 network, there are clear legal regulations for the
latter subject of conservation, which could be compromised to an uncertain
extent through the development of wind energy plants in the forest.
Within the scope of the advertised postdoc position a population model of
the threat to bats should be developed. Herewith a deterministic model of
"crash fatalities" at wind turbines (in cooperation with the department
of mathematics) should be linked to a stochastic population model. A
spatially explicit three-dimensional small-scale modelling of the wind
field within the range of wind energy plants to optimize crash fatality
prognoses of present as well as future wind regimes (in the next 60-90
years; in cooperation with the department of environmental meteorology)
is supposed to enable us to derive profit analysis of wind energy plants
with different rotor heights and involving switchoff-algorithms used
for bat conservation.

The applicants should be qualified in the field of stochastic, individual
based, population modelling, which is verified by publications in
international professional journals. The contribution of this expertise in
other projects of the department of biogeography is explicitly encouraged.

Please submit your application with the common documents (since we will
not return the documents, please apply only electronically) until November
24th 2013, addressed to Prof. Dr. Michael Veith (veith@uni-trier.de)
and PD Dr. Axel Hochkirch (hochkirch@uni-trier.de). Seriously disabled
applicants as well as women will be favoured if they have the proper
qualifications.



Dr. Axel Hochkirch
Trier University
Department of Biogeography
Universitätsring 15
D-54286 Trier
Tel. 0651-201-4692
Fax. 0651-201-3851