PhD Position in Marine Palynology

The Utrecht University Department of Earth Sciences is looking for a highly motivated and versatile PhD candidate with a MSc background in Earth Sciences, Environmental sciences, Biology, Climate physics, Oceanography or other appropriate fields. You will work on the project “Change in the subantarctic ocean during past strong deglaciations induced by icebergs”.

Your job

The subantarctic ocean is one of the three main sinks of atmospheric carbon, and as such it acts as a profound mitigation mechanism of antropogenically induced climate change. This ocean zone faces strong oceanographic changes over the past decade –warming, stratification and freshening– all of which impact the carbon sink efficiency. Questions arise regarding the long-term role of the subantarctic carbon sink as negative climate feedback. In this project, you will combine proxy-based oceanographic reconstructions in the subantarctic zone with numerical lagrangian model simulations of iceberg melt to investigate how iceberg discharge affected the subantarctic zone as carbon sink in the past. In the first half of the project, you will generate dinoflagellate cyst, bulk carbonate geochemistry and biomarker records that document in high resolution the oceanographic changes in two existing sediment cores. In the latter half of the project, you will create lagrangian iceberg tracking simulations with the goal to quantify and map freshwater input from iceberg discharge during deglaciation phases. The ultimate goal is to infer paleoceanographic changes in the subantarctic zone during past deglaciation phases.

A personalised training programme will be set up, reflecting your training needs and career objectives. About 20% of your time will be dedicated to this training component, which includes following workshops and/or courses, as well as training on the job in assisting in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes of the department at Utrecht University.

The position is part of a Dutch National consortium centre called EMBRACER, with the aim to investigate feedbacks within carbon and water cycles in the climate system. EMBRACER includes 23 PIS from 6 institutions and with a wide variety of disciplines, from physics, environmental, earth and social sciences. The EMBRACER community of students and staff will have regular cross-disciplinary meetings, events and lots of opportunities to get in contact with the wide spectrum of climate science. (See also about the organisation.)

Your qualities

We welcome a motivated team-player who recognises themselves in the following description:

The project requires generating numerical simulations and proxy data. You must have completed your MSc degree in Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Biology, Climate Physics, Oceanography or a related discipline by the time the position starts. In terms of skills we require:

• experience or strong interest in paleoclimate/paleoceanography;
• skills in micropaleontology or affinity with microscope work;
• experience in working in a laboratory;
• experience with coding and programming in python;
• demonstrated writing skills;
• versatility and flexibility, keenness to learn new techniques and skillsets;
• capability to independently plan and organize your work, with interest in taking a leading role in its direction;
• adequate social/verbal/communication skills.

Due to the international character of our research, good command of spoken and written English is essential. We highly encourage applicants from all members of our community and of diverse backgrounds to join us.

Our offer

We offer:

• a full-time position for four years;
• a working week of 38 hours and a gross monthly salary between €2,901 and €3,707 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.