Two years Postdoctoral position in Soil Organic Carbon stocks modeling

di Tiziana Gentilesca · 09/12/2014

The INRA (Institut national de la recherche agronomique) Infosol unit based in Orléans, is seeking a highly motivated and reliable postdoc fellow who will work on biogeochemical modeling, to predict soil organic carbon stock changes in French agricultural soils. The proposed position is part of the Csopra project (see description on the next page) recently funded by ADEME within the REACCTIF project call, with a focus on estimating the impact of agricultural management in croplands, on the soil organic carbon dynamics and derive reference values for national GHG inventories. The project will involve applying Biochemical models on datasets from i) a long term experiment database and ii) from the French soil monitoring network.

Requirements

Applicants should have completed a Ph.D. in Agriculture, Ecology, Soil Science, or a closely related field. The successful candidate must have excellent oral and written communication skills in English, and be able to work both independently and in collaboration with other researchers. It is required to have experience working in laboratory/field work, computer programing to facilitate data management and analysis in GIS context, as well as biogeochemical modeling (e.g., Century, Daycent, RothC, ECOSSE…). Model development and implementation is highly preferable.
Tasks will include, but not limited to:

Literature search and compilation of crop and soil emission parameters
Model parameterization and validation
statistical analysis of large simulation outputs and uncertainty analyses
Comparisons and evaluation of methodologies for GHG emission accounting
Writing manuscripts

The postdoc work will be supervised by Manuel Martin (Infosol-Orléans) in close collaboration with Bruno Mary (INRA AgroImpact) and Bertrand Guenet (LCSE). Interested applicants should send a cover letter, CV (please also list publications, scientific presentations and analytical and programming skills), and the names/contact information for three references by email. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

Duration: two years

Salary: Between 1875 and 2157 €/month, net of charges depending on experience. An additional grant might be obtained through application to the Agreenskills programme (http://www.agreenskills.eu/)

Location: INRA InfoSol Unit, Orléans, France

For more information and application, please contact Manuel Martin (manuel.martin(at)orleans.inra.fr).