The main objective of this scholarship is to update and extend the existing Scandinavian tree-ring network, and to utilize the data within various research areas in BECC and MERGE

Study Subject: Physical Geography

Employer: Gothenburg University

Level: PhD

Scholarship Description: We are seeking a highly motivated PhD student to work on a dendroclimatological project. The project is tied to two national strategic research projects: “Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate – BECC” (http://www.miljovetenskap.lu.se/becc) and “ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system (MERGE)” (http://www.miljovetenskap.lu.se/merge). The vision of BECC is to evolve interdisciplinary research approaches that contribute to the sustainable management of ecosystems and biodiversity in a rapidly changing world. The vision of MERGE is to establish and develop a major multidisciplinary climate/Earth System modelling node with world leading science and research education on climate/terrestrial biosphere interactions. In both projects paleoclimate indicators, e.g. tree rings, are utilized to reconstruct climate and ecosystems, as well as the interaction between them, back in time.

The main focus of the PhD project is to update and extend the existing Scandinavian tree-ring network, and to utilize the data within various research areas in BECC and MERGE. Focus will be on utilizing the tree-ring data to produce regional reconstructions of the atmospheric circulation for the last 500-1000 years, and use these to infer past changes in ecosystems. Moreover, the network can also be utilized e.g. to: i) study the effect of a changing climate on different forest ecosystems, especially natural forests at the altitudinal and latitudinal tree limit, and ii) calibrate vegetation models to investigate the association between vegetation change and climate in a geographical perspective. All data that is collected within the project will ultimately be included in the The Greater Baltic Area Palaeoclimate Database (BALPAL, see GULD project page), a unique database at the Department of Earth Sciences where a range of climate proxies will be stored and made freely available for spatiotemporal analyses in e.g. climatology and ecology.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 31 October 2010

Further Scholarship Information and Application:
http://www.gvc.gu.se/Aktuellt/Nyheter/Nyheter+Detalj//available-position—a-phd-position-in-physical-geography.cid955210