Two Post-Doctoral research positions on: Climate Change, Forest diversity and Changes of productivity in the Alps: an analysis of tree growth and mortality responses.
Laboratory:Cemagref – Grenoble (France). Mountain Ecosystem Research
Unit
Description:
These two positions are part of the EU FP7 project BACCARA (Biodiversity
And Climate Change: A Risk Analysis). The goal of this project is to
evaluate risks of European forest biodiversity and productivity loss
under climate change focussing on forest trees and associated species
(mainly insects and pathogens). In this project our team focuses on the
relations between climate, tree demography, tree functional diversity
and productivity in the Alps. We participate both to the
observational/experimental and to the modelling effort in this project.
The objective of these post-doc projects are to assess the risk of
change in productivity and mortality due to climate changes in mountain
forests. More specifically the goal is to rate the risks of dysfunction
(loss of forest cover) and loss of productivity due to the effects of
climate change in forest of different functional and phylogenetic
compositions. The project will be organised around the
diversity-stability paradigm. Adapted to our context, this paradigm
states that more diverse communities should experience less risks of
dysfunction and loss of productivity due to climate change. Functional
diversity will be analysed based on traits related to climate stress
tolerance (for instance a low tolerance of water stress), but we will
also consider traits related to competitive ability (for instance shade
tolerance). We consider that tree-tree interactions are keys to
understand the response of forest communities to global change. Our
approach will be based both on a retrospective analysis of National
Forest Inventory (NFI) data covering a 50 years period and the
development of an individual based model of growth and mortality. The
model will be used to forecast future change in tree growth and
mortality based on climate scenarios. We will make use of recent advance
in Hierarchical Bayesian statistic to analyse this large data set. We
have developed non manipulative methods to analyse tree growth and
mortality response to tree-tree interaction and to climate effects.
These growth and mortality model will be used to forecast changes of
stand productivity and mortality of virtual communities of varying
functional composition.
The post-doctoral fellowship is proposed in the Mountain Ecosystem
Research Unit, Cemagref Grenoble. The unit studies mountain forest and
grassland ecosystems of the Alps, to develop basis for their sound and
sustainable management. We develop a multifunctional approach of forest
ecosystem services with special focus on forest diversity and protection
efficiency against natural hazards. The work of the team is based on
Samsaraa simulation model in the simulation software Capsis, which used
to train forest managers.
Education:Required qualifications include a PhD degree in the fields of
ecology, forestry, environmental science or related field. Preference
will be given to candidates who have experience in R statistical
software, modelling, or Hierarchical Bayesian statistics.
Conditions:
Work will be located in Cemagref in Saint-Martin-d’Hères near Grenoble.
Grosssalary will be of 2200 €/month.
Duration of appointment 19 months for one position and 14 months for the
second position. To start as soon as possible .
Contact:
Applicants should send a cover letter summarizing their research
background, suitability and interest in the position, a CV including a
publication list, and contact information for two referees (everything
as one PDF document) no later than 18 June 2010 by e-mail using the
keyword "Post-doc position" to Dr. Georges Kunstler & Dr. Benoît
Courbaud (georges.kunstler@cemagref.fr,benoit.courbaud@cemagref.fr),
Research Unit Mountain Ecosystems, Cemagref de Grenoble, 2, rue de la
Papeterie - BP 76, F-38402 Saint-Martin-d'Hères cedex (France), Tel :
+33 4 76 76 27 61.