Climate and Global Change Post-doc Opportunity at Cornell

[dale]

NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity at Cornell

We are looking to host a postdoctoral scholar interested in studying Arctic climate change impacts on NW Atlantic ecosystems. Specifically, we are looking for a young scientist with strong quantitative skills and an interest in applying them on observational data or model products relevant to establishing the linkages between atmospheric and oceanic processes in the Arctic and the discharges of Great Salinity Anomalies into the North Atlantic. The scientist should have received his/her PhD in either oceanography or atmospheric sciences. Advanced graduate students who have completed their PhDs before September 1, 2009 will be considered. Applications should include a 2-page CV, a 1-page research interest statement, and one to three letters of recommendation.

The overall goal of the project is to develop a predictive understanding of shelf ecosystem responses to both natural as well as anthropogenic climate forcing. We intend to look for evidence linking the dynamics of regime shifts and biogeographic range shifts in NW Atlantic shelf ecosystems to two important modes of high-latitude climate variability, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Arctic Oscillation (AO). Retrospective analyses of climatic as well as physical and biological oceanographic time-series data will be conducted with the following objectives in mind:

1. to reveal the temporal and geographic patterns of ecosystem regime shifts and biogeographic range shifts in the NW Atlantic,
2. to develop plausible hypotheses linking physical processes to these patterns of regime and range shifts,
3. to provide observation-based, realistic climate scenarios for exploration by numerical modelers associated with the US GLOBEC Pan Regional Synthesis.

To achieve this last objective, and to assess the generality of our findings, the postdoctoral scholar will work with our Marine Ecosystem Responses to Climate in the North Atlantic (MERCINA) working group. The MERCINA working group was funded recently to participate in the US GLOBEC Pan Regional Synthesis and will take a comparative approach in documenting the causes and consequences of regime shifts and biogeographic range shifts. The postdoctoral scholar also will help organize an international symposium on Global Ocean Ecosystems and Climate in Summer 2010.

Contact:

Professor Charles H. Greene
Director, Ocean Resources & Ecosystems Program
2130 Snee Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
(607) 275-1662; chg2@cornell.edu