Postdoc sobre efectos del cambio global y regional en ecosistemas marinos

The Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is a member of the Helmholtz Association (HGF) and funded by federal and state government. AWI focuses on polar and marine research in a variety of disciplines such as biology, oceanography, geology, geochemistry and geophysics thus allowing multidisciplinary approaches to scientific goals.

‍PostDoc "Global change and sustainable management of coastal ecosystems" (m/f/d)

Background

This position is part of the BMBF-funded project PlanktoSERV in the junior working group led by Dr Cédric Meunier. The aim of PlanktoSERV is to realistically assess the impact of global change on plankton individuals, populations, and communities, and to provide a robust understanding of future ecosystem services alterations. PlanktoSERV supports two PhD students and two postdocs.

‍Through simultaneous changes in temperature, pH, nutrient loads, global change puts coastal marine systems under enormous pressure, threatening biological community structure and functioning, and altering the associated ecosystem services. Given the magnitude of this threat, a number of mitigation strategies have appeared over the past two decades. However, those efforts rely on incomplete scientific knowledge since most studies to date have focused on single stressors. The PlanktoSERV project tackles this issue by conducting multiple-stressor studies to provide a robust understanding of how ecosystem services may be altered by global change. Understanding and predicting the influence of global change on ecosystem services is also relevant to national and transnational climate politics and law, for instance, with regard to the EU Water Framework Directive. Hence, an important part of PlanktoSERV is to bridge the gap between natural and social sciences to efficiently manage coastal ecosystems.


You will place the existing natural science knowledge on the effects of global and regional change on marine ecosystems in general, and specifically in the North Sea, into a societal context, by analyzing the impacts on ecosystem services and human perception of change processes. Since ecosystem services bridge the gap between the impacts of human interference with the environment and human welfare, the postdoc will (1) identify innovative tools, methods, and analyses to clarify the interactions and the trade-offs which are implicit in environmental decision making; (2) use those to determine how multiple stressors may alter the goods and services provided by coastal systems. Finally, the postdoc will (3) bring natural science findings and social science perspectives together to conduct an integrated assessment of multiple-stressor- based global change mitigation options.

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Tasks
You will
analyze the impacts on ecosystem services and human perception of change processes.
identify innovative tools, methods, and analyses to clarify the interactions and the trade-offs which are implicit in environmental decision making;
use those tools to determine how multiple stressors may alter the goods and services provided by coastal systems.
bring natural science findings and social science perspectives together to conduct an integrated assessment of multiple-stressor- based global change mitigation options.
gain supervising experience by working together with bachelor and master students, as well as with the two PhD students already working in PlanktoSERV.
present scientific results at international conferences and will be given the opportunity to teach.
closely collaborate with the other postdoc of PlanktoSERV responsible of analyzing the response of plankton food webs to global change using multivariate statistics.

Requirements
a PhD degree in Social or Natural Sciences with a strong focus on global change dynamics of marine social-ecological systems
strong experience in developing tailored mitigation pathways
interdisciplinary experience on climate change processes and ecological economics would be an asset
good publication record
strong team player skills
transdisciplanry working experience
strong cooperation and communication skills in English language written and oral

Further Information

For further information please contact Dr. Cédric Meunier (Cedric.Meunier@awi.de, +49(4725)819-3143)


This is a full-time position, limited to 2 years, expected starting date July 1st, 2020. It is also suitable for part-time employment. The salary will be paid in accordance with the Collective Agreement for the Public Service of the Federation (Tarifvertrag des öffentlichen Dienstes, TVöD Bund), up to salary level 13. The place of employment will be Helgoland.


All doctoral candidates will be members of AWI’s postgraduate program POLMAR or another graduate school and thus benefit from a comprehensive training program and extensive support measures. Postdocs can register with AWI’s postdoc office PROCEED, thereby gaining access to a set of tailor made career development tools.

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This characterizes us
our scientific success - excellent research.
collaboration and cooperation - intra-institute, national and international, interdisciplinary.
opportunities to develop – on the job, aiming at other positions and beyond AWI.
a culture of reconciling work and family – audited, and even more than that.
our outstanding research infrastructure – ships, stations, aircraft, laboratories and more.
an international environment – everyday contacts with people from all over the world.
having an influence – fundamental research with social and political relevance
flat hierarchies – freedom and responsibility.
exciting topics – also in technology, administration and infrastructure.

Equal opportunities are an integral part of our personnel policy. The AWI aims to increase the number of female employees and therefore strongly encourages qualified women to apply.
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Disabled applicants will be given preference when equal qualifications are present. The AWI fosters the compatibility of work and family through various means. Because of our engagement in the area of work-life compatibility we have been awarded the certificate “Career and Family”.

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We look forward to your application!

Please forward your application by May 7th, 2020 exclusively online.

You are expected to develop an independent line of research targeting sustainable management of coastal ecosystems in the context of global change. You are therefore required to submit a two pages research proposal together with the other application documents.
Reference number: 20/74/D/Bio-b