The candidate will develop her/his work within the framework of the H2020 consortium HoliSoil (Holistic management practices, modelling and monitoring for European forest soils). The researcher will be in charge of the coordination of the field experimentation activities that will take place at different representative European forests (Spain, Finland, France, Romania). Her/his function will be to collect field data and to study the ecological mechanisms of soil and forest resilience following natural disturbances of different intensities and nature (e.g. fire, drought, wind). Some of the questions to be answered are: which role plays soil biodiversity in the resilience of soils to a given disturbance type and intensity? can we assist soils to accelerate the recovery of soil functions? Among other things, the successful candidate will be in charge of the maintenance of the experimental plot located in Vitoria (Spain) where field data will be gathered to answers those questions. The candidate will also help in the tasks of coordination of the different experiments that will be installed across Europe.
The position will be supervised by Jorge Curiel Yuste. The successful candidate will be based at BC3 but will be working in a highly multidisciplinary and transnational research environment in close collaboration with other institutions from the H2020 HoliSoil consortium: The Natural Resource Institute, LUKE (Finland), Aix Marseille University and CNRS (France), Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic), University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Transilvania (Romania) and Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit (The Netherlands)
Experience/skills required: Given the interdisciplinary nature of the research we are seeking for a resilient individual with a PhD in soil physics, soil biology or biogeochemistry, forest ecology, disturbance ecology, or any related topic. However, a broad interest in natural sciences more specifically in terrestrial ecology and ecosystem resilience is essential. We are looking for a candidate who is able to demonstrate his/her ability to conduct field work, excellent skills in analyzing research data (e.g. R, Python) and ability for independent scientific work proven by a good publication record. A demonstrated ability to communicate in English is also required. Success in the position also requires good communication skills, as well as ability to work as a part of multidisciplinary and transnational research group.