Two Ph.D. Positions Available
Stockholm University
Application Deadline: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
Stockholm University will launch a cross-departmental Climate Research
School that is planned to start during the autumn of 2006.
Two Ph.D. projects briefly described below address the Arctic and are
included in the Climate Research School. For further information and
instructions on how to apply for these positions, please see:
http://www.geo.su.se/klimatforskarskolan
Arctic Ocean Glacial-Interglacial Circulation Regimes
Lomonosov Ridge off Greenland (LOMROG) is a
geological/geophysical/oceanographic project that will take place during
the International Polar Year (2007) with the Swedish icebreaker Oden.
The main focus for the expedition is the virtually unexplored area of
the submarine Lomonosov Ridge north of Greenland. This is a key area for
the study of the paleoceanography and glacial history of the Arctic
Ocean. Scientific questions concerning the deepwater exchange between
the Eurasian and Amerasian basins, the return flow of Atlantic water,
and the Arctic Ocean glacial-interglacial circulation regimes will be
addressed through studies of the seafloor morphology and accumulated
bottom sediments of this area. The Oden will be equipped with
hull-mounted multibeam bathymetric sonar and a chirp subbottom profiler
during 2006-2007. The Ph.D. candidate will participate in LOMROG 2007
and his/her project will be focused on the processing and analyses of
multibeam/chirp sonar data and sediment cores from the area north of
Greenland with the purpose of relating seafloor morphology and
sedimentation to oceanographic processes.
For more information about the project and position, contact:
Martin Jakobsson, Associate Professor
Department of Geology and Geochemistry
E-mail: martin.jakobsson [at] geo.su.se
Phone: +46 8 16 4719
Dynamics of Carbon in the Soils and Peats of Shifting Northern
Landscapes
Carbon presently sequestered in frozen soils and peats is vulnerable to
global warming, which is expected to be most pronounced in northern
regions. The most recent state-of-the-art climate model ensembles run
with the new SRES scenarios suggest temperature increases as large as 4
to 7 C by the end of the 21st century. Changes in the regional carbon
budget of northern ecosystems could trigger significant feedbacks to the
climate system that have consequences not only for the region itself but
for future climate in the whole of Europe and around the world.
Important changes on land include permafrost thawing, the northward
migration of the arctic treeline and forestry practices affecting carbon
sink and surface albedo and its consequences for soil organic matter
(SOM) degradation and greenhouse gas emissions, and changes in leaching
and TOC export by changes in surface hydrology. The student will work to
assess the susceptibility for decomposition of SOM within the context of
trace gas dynamics at the landscape level by using a hierarchy of
increasingly sophisticated geochemical techniques from laboratory
incubation assays to stable isotope analyses of bulk C, water, and
evolved CO2 and CH4. Potentially specific biomarker analyses and
compound specific 14 C analyses can be included. Field sites include
Stordalen Mire in northern Sweden and three meso-scale river basins in
northeast European Russia across the treeline to tundra transition and
one river basin in the taiga.
For more information about the project, contact:
Patrick Crill, Professor
Department of Geology and Geochemistry
E-mail: patrick.crill [at] geo.su.se
Phone: +46 8 16 4770