PhD in reconstructing past polar marine environments

The Marine Geology Department is seeking to employ a PhD student in the field of paleo environmental reconstructions.

Background

Sea ice is not only highly responsive to, but also a considerable driver of climate change. For an improved understanding and assessment of how the currently observed loss of Arctic sea ice already affects and will further amplify changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns (and thus global heat transport), knowledge about past fluctuations in Arctic sea ice cover is essential. In particular, past time intervals of warmer-than-present climate conditions may serve as crucial analogues to identify feedback mechanisms and boundary conditions in the ice-ocean-atmosphere system to refine projections of future climate change.

Organic geochemical analyses of marine sediment cores collected in the high-latitude polar oceans provide key information on past environmental changes in these climate-sensitive areas over glacial-interglacial time scales. This PhD project - a close cooperation between the Alfred Wegener Institute and the MARUM Excellence Cluster - focusses on the identification of sea ice fluctuations and associated shifts in primary productivity in the Baffin Bay during past glacial-interglacial cycles. Comparisons with other (sub)Arctic and also Antarctic sea ice records further serve to evaluate potential intra- and interhemispheric spatio-temporal (dis)similarities.

Tasks

• conduct organic geochemical bulk sediment and biomarker analyses
• interpret and evaluate coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry data
• investigate the often complex relationships between changes in sea ice cover, ice-sheet dynamics and oceanic and atmospheric interactions during past intervals of climate change
• presentation and discussion of scientific data (workshops, conferences, scientific articles)

Requirements

• MSc degree or equivalent in (Marine) Geology, (Organic) Geochemistry or related discipline
• experience in wet chemical laboratory work (ideally also in the field of organic geochemical lipid analysis)
• very good knowledge of written and spoken English
• good knowledge of standard computer software (MS Office products); desirable also graphics programmes (Illustrator, CorelDraw, Grapher or similar)
• ability to work in a team and interest in (inter)national and interdisciplinary cooperation

Further Information

Please contact
Dr. Juliane Müller
(Juliane.Mueller@awi.de; +49(471)4831-1238) for further information.
This position is limited to 3 years. The salary will be paid in accordance with the Collective Agreement for the Public Service of the Federation (Tarifvertrag des öffentlichen Dienstes, TVöD Bund), up to salary level

13 (66%)
. The place of employment will be
Bremerhaven
.
All doctoral candidates will be members of AWI's postgraduate program
or another graduate school and thus benefit from a comprehensive training program and extensive support measures.

The AWI is characterised by

• our scientific success - excellent research
• collaboration and cooperation - intra-institute, national and international, interdisciplinary
• opportunities to develop – on the job, aiming at other positions and beyond AWI
• a culture of reconciling work and family – an audited and well-supported aspect of our operation
• our outstanding research infrastructure – ships, stations, aircraft, laboratories and more
• an international environment – everyday contacts with people from all over the world
• having an influence – fundamental research with social and political relevance
• flat hierarchies – facilitating freedom and responsibility
• exciting science topics, with opportunities also in technology, administration and infrastructure

Equal opportunities are an integral part of our personnel policy. The AWI aims to increase the number of female employees and therefore strongly encourages qualified women to apply.

Disabled applicants will be given preference when equal qualifications are present.
The AWI fosters the compatibility of work and family in various ways and has received a number of awards as a result of this engagement.
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