Missions

The tree-ring modelling group at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), near Paris, is looking for a dendrochronology research engineer with experience of fieldwork and crossdating with South American tree species, as well as project management skills. Spoken and written Spanish is necessary for the exchanges and coordination with local partners in Latin america. The post is part of the ERC-funded CATES project, which will use global tree-ring data to improve the ORCHIDEE model of the world's land surface developed at LSCE. The research will gather, produce and combine several types of tree-ring data in order to test and constrain the model, focusing on certain supersites. CATES will bring to earth system modelling decades of progress made by dendrochronologists around the world.

Activities

The activities of the position will include:
• Organisation of field campaigns in South America, Europe, Africa and possibly the United States
• Coordinating field missions locally, in conjunction with institutional partners and local guides (particularly Spanish-speaking)
• Crossdating tree-ring collections and chronology building for long-lived tree species in the southern hemisphere (particularly alerce, Araucaria, Austrocedrus, Nothofagus)
• Management of wood and sample collections
• Measurement of stable carbon and oxygen isotopes
• Measurement of samples for xylogenesis and wood anatomy
• Writing of technical reports and scientific publications.
• Development of scientific methodologies.

Skills

Requirements:
• Demonstrated experience in cross-dating long-lived tree species from the southern hemisphere, particularly South American (e.g. Nothofagus, alerce, araucaria, austrocedrus, polylepis).
• Experience in laboratory processing of tree-ring samples for isotopic analysis (preparation, separation, packing)
• Skills in dendrochronological database management (organisation, archiving, metadata documentation)
• Basic project management skills (organising field campaigns, coordinating partners, monitoring schedules)
• Proven experience of fieldwork, particularly in remote or mountainous areas
• Experience in scientific publishing
• Fluency in spoken Spanish and a good level of written and spoken English
• Valid driving licence, essential for field work

Work Context

The LSCE (www.lsce.ipsl.fr/) is a world-class institute on climate change research and Earth System modeling located on the plateau of Saclay near Paris. It hosts the development of the ORCHIDEE model and employs over 320 researchers from more than 30 different nationalities and many scientific disciplines. The selected candidate will be supervised by Jonathan Barichivich (CNRS; PI of CATES) in the MOSAIC team that group researchers working on modelling processes at the interface between the land surface and the atmosphere.

Additional Information

The position will be open until filled for a fixed-term period of 24 months, with a possible extension based on performance.
Applications should be submitted through the CNRS jobs portal (https://emploi.cnrs.fr/) including (1) a curriculum vitae, (2) short statement of motivation (½ page) and (3) names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of at least two references.