PhD position: “Dissolved CO2 and nutrient cycling across the North Sea-Atlantic Ocean frontier (...

THE NORTH-SEA ATLANTIC EXCHANGE (NoSE) PROJECT

The North Sea is a highly productive and heavily exploited continental shelf sea that absorbs significant quantities of atmospheric CO2. But the fate of absorbed CO2 is highly uncertain, in particular the balance between outflow into the Atlantic Ocean and burial in sediments, so we cannot accurately project how this may change in the future. In the NoSE project, a multidisciplinary consortium of researchers (from NIOZ, Delft University of Technology, University of Groningen, Utrecht University, and several international partners) will determine the past, present and future role of the North Sea within the wider biogeochemical system of the Atlantic Ocean. Focusing on the Norwegian Trench, which is both the main outflow route to the Atlantic Ocean and the main place where sediments accumulate within the North Sea, we will investigate the transport and conversion processes that regulate carbon and nutrient exchange between the land, shelf sea and open ocean through a combination of oceanographic research expeditions and computer modelling. By linking these results to the palaeo record from seafloor sediments, NoSE will reveal new insights into how the cycling of carbon and nutrients in the North Sea and their exchange with the Atlantic Ocean have varied over the past thousands of years and how they may continue to evolve in the future.

THE POSITION

This PhD position is focused on the biogeochemistry of dissolved CO2 and (micro)nutrients in North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean waters. You will answer critical questions about the water column: how much CO2 do waters in and around the Norwegian Trench absorb from the atmosphere? Of the dissolved CO2, alkalinity and (micro)nutrients in North Sea waters, how much flows out into the Atlantic Ocean, and what are the consequences downstream? How might these answers change in the future under local human pressures and climate change? To answer these questions, you will have the opportunity to collect new samples at sea while participating in several oceanographic research expeditions and to use data from state-of-the-art biogeochemical sensors on autonomous platforms (ocean gliders and moorings). Combined with findings from other NoSE participants studying sediment biogeochemistry and model simulations, you will help to build overall carbon and nutrient budgets and investigate the interactions between North Sea biogeochemistry and the surrounding Atlantic Ocean.

For the interdisciplinary NoSE project, we are looking for multiple PhD candidates (see other vacancies NoSE project)  who will all work closely together. You may express an interest in multiple NoSE PhD positions in your motivation letter.