Postdoc in Climate Change Impacts on Alpine Stream Phenology

Model fine-scale stream water temperatures across the Swiss Alps, including testing modeled predictions with empirical stream temperature datasets; use predictive stream temperature models to estimate future fluxes of emergent aquatic insects from alpine streams based on empirical phenological data; and compare predicted shifts in emergent aquatic insect phenology, biomass, and nutritional quality with observed rates of phenological advancement in alpine riparian birds. Work closely with multiple PhD students, including on newly collected empirical datasets and newly developed stream temperature models.

Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, is an internationally networked aquatic research institute within the ETH Domain (Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology). Eawag conducts research, education and expert consulting to achieve the dual goals of meeting direct human needs for water and maintaining the function and integrity of aquatic ecosystems.

The Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution (FishEc) has an open vacancy. The Food Web Ecophysiology group studies how nutrients and contaminants move through animals, within food webs, and across ecosystem boundaries, and how global changes like land use and climate change alter such processes. The goal of the current project is to model how climate warming will shift the phenology, biomass, and nutritional quality of emergent aquatic insects across alpine streams and to compare predicted shifts in insect phenology with rates of phenological advancement in riparian birds.

The position is within the Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, located on the shores of Lake Lucerne in Kastanienbaum, Switzerland, and will also work closely with researchers based jointly at ETH Zürich in the Department of Environmental Systems Science (USYS) and at the SLF in Davos, Switzerland.

At Eawag, we have a working environment in which people with different experiences, strengths, and perspectives can fully contribute and further develop. We promote genuine participation, exchange, and mutual understanding. We create structures that enable the compatibility of work and other areas of life, such as care work, and continuously make efforts to reduce barriers.

• Can work independently as well as part of a small team.

• Self-motivated when developing new skills or exploring new topics, with a resilient, growth-based mindset.

• Experience working with time series data, ideally phenology and/or climate datasets, is a must.

• Experience using hydrological models, such as data-driven or process-based streamflow or water temperature models, is an asset.

• Excellent communication skills and comfort working with researchers across disciplines like ecology, hydrology, and climate science.

• Interest in mentoring additional junior researchers, including master’s students, is a plus.

• The lab and departmental working languages are English; interest in learning and/or knowledge of a Swiss national language would be helpful for fieldwork and outreach.

• Application should include a letter of motivation, CV, the names and email addresses of two references, and a PDF containing a representative peer-reviewed scientific publication.