May 16, 2022
The Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics is looking for a ambitious academic with expertise in evolutionary ecology to join the Department of Evolutionary & Population Biology.
Closing date: 20 May 2022
March 4, 2022
I wanted to share the details of Scholars at Risk Network with people today. This is an organisation that the University of Amsterdam is working with to provide support to scholars around the world who find themselves in difficult situations. The university is currently working with Scholars at Risk to see if there are additional possibilities to support people effected by the current crisis in Ukraine.
December 23, 2021
We are seeking to recruit an experienced educator and researcher in the field of climate dynamics, linked to Earth system functioning and/or land-surface processes. The position will be tenured, subject to a positive evaluation of your performance during the initial 12-month temporary appointment.
Deadline: 31 January 2022
Find out more and apply:
September 3, 2021
I am excited to announce that we are looking for an expert in climate systems, with experience of computational modelling, to join our team in the Department of Ecosystem & Landscape Dynamics (ELD) at the University of Amsterdam. ELD is one of four research departments within the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics which seeks to unravel how ecosystems function in all their complexity. The successful applicant will deliver climate related education within our BSc Future Planet Studies and MSc Earth Sciences programs, and conduct cutting edge research. We are looking for a collaborative researcher who can establish research links with existing staff members and inspire students.
For full details and how to apply visit: https://www.academictransfer.com/nl/303950/assistant-professorship-in-climate-vegetation-dynamics/
Closing date: Monday 11 October
Interviews likely to be conducted in Amsterdam: 27 and 29 October.
July 8, 2021
Location: Leibniz-Institut für Angewandte Geophysik
Team including: Thomas Wonik, Christian Zeeden, Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr, William Gosling
We are looking for a researcher with a geosciences background to explore the physical properties of the sediments recovered from Lake Bosumtwi (Ghana). The Lake Bosumtwi sediments we recovered by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program in 2004 and have been found to span the last c. 1.07 million years (Koerbel et al., 2005). This project will examine the borehole data and relate this ongoing palaeoenvironmental studies at the site (Miller & Gosling, 2014; Miller et al., 2016).
For further details see:
Deadline for applications: 31/07/2021
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September 28, 2020
Do you have a PhD in Physical Geography, Environmental Sciences, Landscape Ecology or Soil Ecology? Have you got educational and research experience working with digital data to contribute to climate, geographic or biodiversity science? If so please consider applying for the 4-year post-doctoral position “Digital Environmental Sustainability” currently available within the Department of Ecosystem & Landscape Dynamics (Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam).
Closing data: 29 November 2020
For full information click here.
July 12, 2020
Lab meeting online
This project will increase our understanding of how past disturbances have influenced the biodiversity and structure of Amazonian rainforests. The coming years, we will work on reconstructing past fire and vegetation history of forest plots in Amazonia, and how that history relates to modern biomass and modern carbon dynamics. ALPHA is important for forest conservation, because results can be used to prioritize land for conservation. ALPHA results will also give an estimation of the Amazonian rainforests’ ability to sequester carbon, which is important for global carbon models. dr. C.N.H. McMichael received an ERC grant to research ALPHA in Amazonia together with 2 PhD students, 1 post-doc, 2 technicians and a senior-staff. At the beginning of March, the positions were filled, and our team was complete. But then COVID-19 happened… and our team was spread over continents!
To keep ALPHA going, we started with weekly virtual lab meetings. Because these fruitful discussions are online, other researchers soon joined from the US, UK and Jamaica. It is not your average “vrijmibo”, but very fun and a nice way to stay connected! One of the papers we have discussed is the “Asynchronous carbon sink saturation in African and Amazonian tropical forests” from Hubau et al (2020).
In 2015, Brienen et al. published an article about the growth and mortality of trees in Amazonian rainforests for the period of 1985 to 2015. Their results showed a decline of the carbon sink in Amazonian forests.
Now, Hubau et al. (2020) added results from African forest plots and compared the net carbon sink of the African and Amazonian forests. Instead of a long-term decline, African forests showed a stable carbon sink. The difference in their carbon sink was because more trees died in Amazonia, but not in African forests. But since 2010, a decline is also visible in the carbon sink of African forests. This suggests that the two forests have a different ‘saturation’ point in the carbon they can storage.
A statistical model with CO2, temperature, drought and forest dynamics was created to predict the carbon changes of the forests over time. This model predicts that the carbon sink of African forests will show a gradual decline and the carbon sink of Amazonian forests will decline fast.
Overall, this paper highlights that our rainforests may not be the carbon sink we had thirty years ago. We will need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sooner, if we want to limit global warming. Also, this paper showed how important forest dynamics are to accurately model and predict the carbon storage of Amazonia. Hopefully, the ALPHA research project will make a contribution to this!
November 29, 2018
The Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam) is currently looking for an theoretical ecologist. The position will be based in the Department of Theoretical & Computational Ecology and will be at the Assistant or Associate Professor level.
Closing date: 3 January 2019
For further details on the position and how to apply click here.
February 27, 2018
February 14, 2018
This year at the Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting participants have been challenged to draw a pictire about a talk that they see as part of the science bingo event #NAEMbingo #NAEM2018
Ecology of the past 