项目介绍

2025年1月23日

Join us at the Copernicus Institute external link for a PhD position exploring the critical interactions between two climate tipping elements: the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the Amazon rainforest. As part of the EMBRACER programme, you’ll use advanced models and data analysis to uncover how these systems influence each other and the global climate. Be part of cutting-edge research addressing vital climate challenges.

Your job

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the Amazon rainforest play important roles in the Earth’s climate system. Both of these subsystems have been marked as tipping elements and global climate change seems to push both to their tipping point. While both subsystems have been studied in isolation, it is yet largely unknown how they may interact and affect each other’s tipping behaviour. For example, an AMOC collapse could redistribute rainfall across the Amazon and thereby affect its internal forest-rainfall feedback. Conversely, changes in forest cover distributions would affect the energy and water balances in the Amazon, which might affect the AMOC. With this PhD position at the Copernicus Institute, and another PhD project at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht external link (IMAU), we aim to improve our understanding of the coupling between these important climate subsystems, using models of different complexity and a combination of mathematical, numerical and data analysis methods. If you are more interested in the position at IMAU, you can find the vacancy at PhD position on Climate Dynamics external link.

The Amazon rainforest is the world’s largest rainforest. It contributes to massive amounts of CO₂ storage and rainfall production for South America. Amazon dieback could be dramatic for the continent, but might also have global effects. For instance, it could lead to additional atmospheric CO₂, changes in moisture transport into and/or out of the region, and alterations to large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns. At the Copernicus Institute, the Amazon rainforest and its spatially cascading transitions have been studied for years using custom made data analysis and modelling methods.

The AMOC plays an important role in the global climate system, influencing temperature and rainfall patterns globally. A collapse of the AMOC would dramatically change Earth’s climate, leading for example in cooling of Europe, changes in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and precipitation changes in the Amazon rainforest. At IMAU, the potential of tipping of the AMOC has been studied for many years using, amongst others, models of different complexity, ranging from conceptual box models to state-of-the-art Global Climate Models (GCMs).

Within the NWO-Summit project EMBRACER, two PhD candidates will build synergies between the approaches taken at IMAU and the Copernicus Institute and address AMOC-Amazon interactions in detail, in particular the role of atmospheric teleconnections and of changing spatial heterogeneities in both the AMOC and the Amazon. In the specific sub-project at the Copernicus Institute, GCM output will be used for performing atmospheric moisture tracking in order to study spatially heterogeneous interactions between the Amazon and the AMOC. It will be determined how changing spatial heterogeneities in the moisture recycling patterns following AMOC collapse affect cascading tipping points in the Amazon rainforest, and vice versa. For example, a  spatially heterogeneous reaction-diffusion model for the Amazon rainforest will be developed. Specifically, the role of spatial heterogeneities in the interactions between AMOC and the Amazon rainforest will be analyzed.

Your qualities

We are looking for inspiring and self-driven candidates who have:

• a MSc in physics, applied mathematics, ecology, environmental sciences or a related field;
• excellent skills in scientific programming and numerical / statistical analysis of simulated and observed data;
• basic knowledge of environmental processes;
• excellent writing and communication skills;
• experience with ecological modelling (considered an advantage). 

Selection will be made solely based on qualifications without regard to gender, religion or national origin. Disabled applicants with comparable qualifications will be given preference. Candidates should be able to demonstrate self-motivation, a strong eagerness to learn, and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team.

Our offer

We offer:

• the opportunity to work in and with a team of leading experts;
• a full-time position for 4 years;
• a working week of 36 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. 

In addition to the terms of employment external link laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. This includes schemes facilitating professional development external link, leave schemes and schemes for sports and cultural activities external link, as well as discounts on software and other IT products. We also offer access to additional employee benefits through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage our employees to continue to invest in their growth. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University external link.

About us

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University external link, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes external link. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Sharing science, shaping tomorrow external link.

Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences external link studies the Earth: from the Earth’s core to its surface, including man’s spatial and material utilisation of the Earth – always with a focus on sustainability and innovation. With 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty of Geosciences is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Human Geography & Spatial Planning, Physical Geography, and Sustainable Development.

The position is embedded at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, in the Environmental Sciences group. The Copernicus Institute is the scientific institute for sustainability research and teaching of Utrecht University. The mission of the Environmental Sciences group is to understand the interactions between terrestrial ecosystems and global environmental change. 

At EMBRACER we work at the very frontiers of knowledge on climate change, Earth’s climate system and climate feedbacks. Within its 10-year research programme, funded by NWO, EMBRACER brings together a wide range of world-leading climate experts with the aim to address existing uncertainties about climate feedbacks at the boundaries between oceans, land, ice, and atmosphere. Our interdisciplinary approach and state-of-the-art infrastructure will bring us forward in our understanding of the impact of climate feedbacks emerging over the next decades to centuries.

More information

For more information, please contact professor Max Rietkerk external link at M.G.Rietkerk@uu.nl or Dr A. Staal external link at A.Staal@uu.nl.

Do you have a question about the application procedure? Please send an email to Sophie Ketting via s.j.ketting@uu.nl.

Candidates for this vacancy will be recruited by Utrecht University.

Apply now

As Utrecht University, we want to be a home external link for everyone. We value staff with diverse backgrounds, perspectives and identities, including cultural, religious or ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. We strive to create a safe and inclusive environment in which everyone can flourish and contribute.

If you have the expertise and the experience to excel in this role then simply respond via the ‘apply now’ button. Please enclose:

• your motivation letter;
• your curriculum vitae;
• the names, telephone numbers, and email addresses of at least two referees.

If this specific opportunity isn’t for you, but you know someone else who may be interested, please forward the link to them.

The application deadline is 14 March 2025.