The Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics group of the Department of Earth Sciences and Ecology at VU University Amsterdam (department chair: prof. dr. Han Dolman) has a PhD position available in understanding the variability in the coupled cycles of water and carbon in the Amazon.

The Amazon tropical forest is under pressure from both climate change and deforestation. One of the key questions is how these pressures affect the resilience of the system. This project aims at understanding the potential effect of CO₂-fertilization on the water fluxes in the Amazon. A particular question is how potential increased water use efficiency affects recycling of rainfall through evaporation and how it modulates the resilience of the system. Using a combination of modelling and remote sensing data we aim to analyse the response of the water and carbon cycle to increasing CO₂ and climate change.

Location: Although you will be based at VU University Amsterdam, we expect that you will also collaborate closely with researchers in Brazil at the Institute for Space Research.

Closing date: October 30th, 2015

The project is funded by the Netherlands Earth System Science Center (NESSC).

For more information, please visit http://vu.nl/nl/werken-bij-de-vu/vacatures/2015/15310.asp