[ES_JOBS_NET] Postdoctoral Opportunity — California and Western US Vegetation Dynamics

[Charlie Koven]

The Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division at Berkeley Lab seeks a California and Western US Vegetation Dynamics Postdoctoral Scholar to combine observations, ecological theory, and numerical model development to explore the impacts of and feedbacks between climate extremes and vegetation dynamics for ecosystems in California and throughout the western US. This role will work within a five-year project funded by the Department of Energy’s Regional and Global Climate Modeling program to assess the role of climate extremes in governing tree mortality, disturbance-recovery cycles, changing ecosystem function, and transient vegetation range shifts.
 
What You Will Do:
	• Explore how plant hydraulic and other traits govern vegetation distributions in California and the western US.
	• Develop and test process representation within the Functionally-Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES), a demographic, dynamic, vegetation model for use within the land models of the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM).
	• Test model predictions against a wide variety of observational datasets, including eddy covariance, remote sensing, and forest inventory data.
	• Use the recent California drought as a test of model predictions of how climate extremes govern vegetation dynamical process rates.
	• Explore the roles of changing climate extremes over the historical period and future projections in governing ecosystem structure and process.
	• Explore the role of vegetation dynamics in governing biophysical and carbon cycle climate feedbacks in California and the Western US, using coupled land-atmosphere configurations within an Earth system model.

What is Required: 
	• PhD in relevant field (e.g., climate science, ecology, plant physiology, forestry, atmospheric dynamics).
	• Proficient coding skills in, at a minimum, data analysis languages (Python, R, matlab, etc), and ideally, in compiled languages such as Fortran.
	• Knowledge of and interest in land surface processes, atmospheric dynamics, and ecological science concepts.
	• Experience with analysis of both observational and model-derived datasets.
	• Particularly interested in candidates with experience working with demographic vegetation models, plant hydraulic models, or variable-resolution climate models.
	• Ability to understand and use state-of-the-art land-surface and coupled land-atmosphere models.
	• Evidence of ability to publish research results in peer-reviewed journals.

The posting shall remain open until the position is filled, however for full consideration, please apply by close of business on January 15, 2018.

Notes:
	• This is a full time, 1 year, postdoctoral appointment with the possibility of renewal based upon satisfactory job performance, continuing availability of funds and ongoing operational needs. You must have less than 4 years paid postdoctoral experience. Salary for Postdoctoral positions depends on years of experience post-degree.
	• Full-time, M-F, exempt (monthly paid) from overtime pay.
	• This position is represented by a union for collective bargaining purposes.
	• Salary will be predetermined based on postdoctoral step rates.
	• This position may be subject to a background check. Any convictions will be evaluated to determine if they directly relate to the responsibilities and requirements of the position. Having a conviction history will not automatically disqualify an applicant from being considered for employment.
	• Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA.

Apply here:  http://m.rfer.us/LBLZOaDW

For questions or further information, contact me at cdkoven at lbl.gov



Charlie Koven
Staff Scientist
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Berkeley, CA