PhD position-Reducing uncertainties in scenarios of deforestation and human caused fires

The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the Humboldt University Berlin and the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Brazil, offer training and excellent research opportunities for outstanding PhD students within the International Research Training Group on “Dynamical Phenomena in Complex Networks”. Within the IRTG it is intended to study principles of self-organization in evolving complex networks. The theoretical studies will be intimately connected with the investigation of experimental and natural dynamical networks of increasing complexity starting from lasers, via hybrid networks of neurons to the Earth system. In this context, the main topic will be to understand the functioning of the Earth´s subsystems under changing conditions, especially global warming and deforestation in Amazonia. The training program includes dual supervision of each student, annual schools and workshops in Germany and Brazil. Doctoral researchers are required to spe
 nd a period of up to 6 month in the overseas partner group.
As human-caused ignitions increase when forest is converted to pasture or agricultural land, the uncertainty in quantifying these causes need to be reduced in order to improve estimates of resulting large-scale fire emissions. This will be done by building on previous analyses of how the road network and distance to roads influences human-caused fires in the Amazon. The PhD student will base the work on previous analysis conducted at INPE.

Methoden:
New modeling approaches to quantify human-caused ignitions in land conversion situations will be developed and implemented in LPJmL-SPITFIRE. Scenarios of different fire impact will be analysed using complex networks.

Anfangsdatum: 17. November 2011

geschätzte Dauer: Three (3) years

Bezahlung: 1365 EUR/month, plus a research allowance of 103 EUR/month

Veröffentlichungen:
Please send your application (a brief statement of research interests, a CV and full contact information for 1-2 referees) to Dr. Kirsten Thonicke (Kirsten.Thonicke[-at-]pik-potsdam.de).

Homepage: http://www.physik.hu-berlin.de/irtg1740/information

Qualifications:
- University degree at the Master/Diploma level in environmental sciences, geoecology, climatology, physics, system science. In a few exceptional cases outstanding applicant with a Bachelor’s degree may be considered.
- Experience with data analysis, programming and computational modeling
- Motivation to work in a multi-disciplinary team
- Excellent knowledge of English language (written and spoken) is indispensable