Posdoc estudiando microclimas forestales en una selva virtual

Oferta compartida por Nuria

Ecosystems cannot be understood through piecemeal studies of their individual components. As a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Forest Microclimate, you will be part of an attempt to generate a synthetic, systems-level understanding of how a tropical forest ecosystem operates. We are building a team to create a virtual rainforest: a general ecosystem model replicating the physical and biotic components of the ecosystem and their interactions, with a view to understanding system-level emergent properties.

You will be responsible of developing a process-based simulation of the physical environment in a tropical rainforest ecosystem, that will be one of four modules that together will form the virtual rainforest (the others are plants, animals and soil microbes). Your simulation will be based on inputs of local topography, macro and regional climate from atmospheric circulation models, and dynamically updated vegetation structure from the plants module, from which it will need to predict spatial and temporal variation in microclimate (e.g. air and soil temperature, soil moisture, vapour pressure deficit), vertical profiles of wind speed and canopy temperature, and, ideally, streamflow (e.g. base flows, flood frequency and magnitude).

Your primary role will be to develop the physical environment module of a virtual rainforest simulation, and you will be assisted in this by additional team members. The project provides a generous budget for
placements and secondments to collaborate with research groups beyond our own. The virtual rainforest will rely heavily on data collected from the SAFE Project (www.safeproject.net), and you will be required to help with the management of these datasets. All team members will be expected to help develop the skills and competencies of their peers through the sharing of tasks and knowledge, and you will be given time, resources and encouragement to pursue your professional development.

We specifically encourage female applicants and applicants from underrepresented groups in STEM subjects. We also welcome applications from candidates that would like full-time or part-time positions on this project, and will explore job-sharing arrangements should that be appropriate.

Applicants from any climate, physics or ecological background are encouraged to apply. You will be one member of a core team of five people, across which we are seeking team members who provide complementary technical skills and disciplinary knowledge. Programming experience - preferably in Python - is essential, and experience with either process-based or numeric simulation modelling is desirable.

This position is full-time and fixed term until 30 September 2024, and will be based at Imperial College London's Silwood Park Campus.

To apply, visit https://www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/description/NAT00971/research-associate-forest-microclimate, or go to www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs and search by the job reference NAT00971. The deadline for applications is 30-Aug-2021.

Applicants will need to complete an online application, including a CV and cover letter. Cover letters should make clear what disciplinary knowledge you possess, and what subset of the skills required for the whole team that you would bring.

Should you require any further details on the role please contact: Prof. Rob Ewers - r.ewers@imperial.ac.uk. Informal enquiries are welcomed.