Postdoctoral Research Associate in Palaeoceanography

The Role

The Department of Geography at Durham University seeks to appoint two full-time Post-Doctoral Research Associates in Palaeoceanography to join the HORIZON EUROPE funded project "Past to Future: towards fully paleo-informed future climate projections (P2F)". Both posts are available for 30 months with Post 1, focusing on sea surface temperature and Post 2, on sea ice.

Both PDRAs will be contributing to a large research project ("P2F") where data and modelling are used in tandem: we seek candidates who have interests which could include proxy ocean temperature reconstructions, sea ice reconstructions, data-model comparison and integration, and climate changes which may vary from centennial-millennial-orbital timescales during the last ~4 million years.

The project Past-to-Future (P2F) aims at advancing our knowledge of past climatic conditions to better understand Earth's climate response to different kinds of forcing, with considerable focus on potential abrupt climatic transitions and the crossing of tipping points. To this end, P2F will integrate information from paleoenvironmental proxy data, from Earth system models (ESMs), and from rigorous theoretical approaches. Timescales of interest include the last glacial cycle, the mid Pleistocene transition, and the Pliocene warm period. P2F is led by Anna von der Heydt at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and involves 21 European institutions spanning modelling and proxy approaches. Both PDRAs will be actively involved in discussions with the modelling teams around data synthesis and data interpretation including assessment of uncertainties.

The overall aim of Post 1 "sea surface temperature" PDRA will be to collate and generate high time resolution data of ocean temperature changes. The primary target time intervals are the last glacial cycle (the last ~130,000 years) and the mid Pliocene warm period (~3.0-3.5 million years ago). Where new data are required, the focus will be on generating organic geochemistry (biomarker) proxies: alkenones will be analysed at Durham University; the PDRA will also spend time with collaborator Dr Kasia Sliwinska at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) in Copenhagen, Denmark to generate GDGT temperature data (https://pub.geus.dk/en/persons/kasia-sliwinska).

The overall aim of Post 2 "sea ice" PDRA will be to collate existing data on Arctic and Antarctic sea-ice extent spanning the last glacial cycle (the last ~130,000 years) and the mid Pliocene warm period (~3.0-3.5 million years ago). The PDRA will liaise closely with collaborator Helle Astrid Kjaer (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) on new data from Greenland ice cores (https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/en/persons/helle-astrid-kjær). There may be opportunities to generate high time resolution data of sea ice from marine or biological archives to fill in time gaps or provide more regional detail. We expect that the focus will be on organic geochemistry (biomarker) proxies at Durham University.

Please see the full list of responsibilities and person specification given below.

The successful applicants will join the large and internationally recognised groups of researchers in the Department of Geography including the 'Sea Level, Ice and Climate' cluster (https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/geography/research/clusters/sea-level-ice-climate/). They will join regular seminars and research mentoring events, have opportunities to present their own research, and receive training support from award-winning University programs.