PostDoc position for modeling disturbance and recovery in temperate/boreal forests

22.12.2021, Wissenschaftliches Personal

The Professorship for Land Surface-Atmosphere Interactions at TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan invites applications for a PostDoc position for modeling disturbance and recovery in temperate/boreal forests E13 TV-L, 100%, for 3 years

About us

The Professorship for Land Surface-Atmosphere Interactions at the Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management investigates impacts of global climate and land-use change on terrestrial ecosystems and potential mitigation and adaptation strategies. The goal is to gain a deeper knowledge of the functioning of ecosystem processes in a changing climate and provide guidance for sustainable management and adaptation of our ecosystems in the future. We develop and apply the well-established dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS (https://www.lsai.wzw.tum.de/lpj-guess/), which is a joint effort of an international developer team of which we are active members (http://web.nateko.lu.se/lpj-guess/credits.html). This model is the basis for exploring potential responses of the terrestrial biosphere to environmental changes and for assessing scenarios of land management. For more information on our group and current projects, please see www.lsai.wzw.tum.de.

Your tasks

Disturbances in temperate and boreal forests are expected to increase with climate change and the question is how to create stable and resilient forest stands in the future. This includes also to develop strategies for forest recovery after disturbances. In particular, dealing with increasing frequency and severity of droughts is difficult for many tree species in European forests and making trees more susceptible to further damage. However, current ecosystem models typically only have a rudimentary representation of disturbance impacts, drought mortality, tree interactions with drought and other disturbances, and forest recovery, and thus likely underestimate the adverse impact of disturbances. For the LPJ-GUESS ecosystem model, a detailed representation of drought-plant interactions (Papastefanou et al. 2020, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00373/full) and forest management have recently been implemented (Lindeskog et al. 2021, https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/6071/2021/gmd-14-6071-2021.html). Your main task will be to extend, parameterize and evaluate this model version for the interactions between disturbances, forest management and forest recovery under present-day environmental conditions. You will also apply the model at continental to global scale under future scenarios of climate change and forest management to assess the impacts of disturbances on forest composition and carbon storage in a scenario-based approach and to identify potential adaptation options. Candidates are encouraged to contribute their own research ideas.

Your profile

• PhD degree in mathematics, physics, geoecology, biology, meteorology, computational science or environmental modeling
• Excellent knowledge of scientific programming and data analysis (e.g. C++ and R/Python) with experience in ecosystem/atmospheric modeling
• Experience with running simulations on a Linux/Unix cluster and handling large datasets
• Ability to work independently and in a team
• Excellent skills in communicating concepts and results in literate English, including writing publications

Our offer

We offer a stimulating working environment in an interdisciplinary research team with the opportunity to contribute to existing projects (see www.lsai.wzw.tum.de) and to develop your own research agenda. The position is 100% and conditions of employment follow the rules of the German tariffs of public services (TV-L). Funding for travel, conference visits, stay abroad and personal development is available. TUM is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified women are therefore particularly encouraged to apply. Applicants with disabilities are treated with preference given comparable qualifications.

Contact

Please send your application as one single PDF file (max. 10 MB), including a motivation letter explaining why you are interested in this position, CV, publications, a brief description of scientific achievements and interests, and contact information of two referees before January 15 to Prof. Dr. Anja Rammig ([email protected]).

Data Protection Information:
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Kontakt: [email protected]

http://www.lsai.wzw.tum.de