Dear AQUA colleagues,

I am seeking you help in promoting a PhD opportunity that is unfortunately not available to Australians or New Zealanders.


We are seeking a high quality Quaternary/Earth Science/Geography student to undertake a joint University of Adelaide-University of Nottingham PhD project with a four year tax free scholarship.  The student will be awarded a joint University of Adelaide-University of Nottingham PhD.

The student will be studying the following topic:

The hydroclimatic history of the Australian subtropics inferred from Fraser Island lake sediments.

Understanding past hydroclimates are crucial in the Australian subtropics for (a) investigating the geographic expression of Pacific Ocean climate impacts; (b) constraining the full magnitude and causation of extreme droughts/floods, with relevance for future hydrological management; and (c) relating long term ecological change, including the appearance and loss of Australian animal species, to associated climate variability.

In this project, the student will infer past rainfall variation from lake water oxygen isotope proxies and/or the carbon isotope composition of Melaleuca quinquenervia leaves from key Fraser Island<http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/fraser-island> (Queensland) lakes.  The relationship between leaf carbon isotopes and rainfall is outlined in Tibby et al. (2016) and the project is discussed to some extent in this video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXJXg8yhrYA>. Oxygen isotopes would be extracted from aquatic cellulose and/or diatom and phytolith silica. This project will likely incorporate diatom and/or macrofossil analysis from these lakes.  The precise nature of the project, including the timeframe of focus will be negotiated with the successful student.




The student will be based in Geography at The University of Adelaide and supervised by Dr John Tibby<https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/john.tibby> (Geography) and Dr Jonathan Tyler<https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/jonathan.tyler> (Department of Earth Sciences).  The student is expected to spend a minimum of 18 months at The University of Nottingham and it is envisaged that much of this time will be spent undertaking carbon and/or oxygen isotope analyses under the supervision of Professor Melanie Leng<http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/biosciences/people/melanie.leng>.

We are aiming to decide on a student by the end of September and thus seek expressions of interest (which in the first instance can be informal) by the 20th September to John Tibby.<mailto:john.tibby@adelaide.edu.au>

Note that this scholarship is not available to Australian and New Zealand citizens and residents.  Please note that international students should normally have minimum qualifications of a Masters thesis or a first-authored peer-reviewed publication in an international non predatory outlet.

References:
Tibby J, Barr C, McInerney FA, Henderson ACG, Leng MJ, Greenway M, Marshall JC, McGregor GB, Tyler JJ and McNeil V. 2016. Carbon isotope discrimination in leaves of the broad-leaved paperbark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, as a tool for quantifying past tropical and subtropical rainfall. Global Change Biology 22(10): 3474-3486.

Please pass on this message to anyone who might be interested, John.


__________________________________________
Dr John Tibby
Senior Lecturer
Acting Head of Department (Semester 2, 2017) Department of Geography, Environment and Population

At the Department of Geography at the RWTH Aachen University two PhD-positions are available from January 1st 2018. Applications are invited for a three-year PhD-studentship. The appointment is offered as part time (23.90 hrs/week) with a payment according to TV-L E13 (60 %).

Assignments: The first PhD position is embedded in the CRC806 “Our Way to Europe”, subproject B1 “Last Glacial Palaeogeography and Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean and of the Balkan Peninsula”. The PhD candidate will focus on sedimentary and geochemical analysis on loess sections, with the main regional focus on southeastern Europe. In addition, she/he will improve new methods, which were developed during the second phase.

The second PhD position is embedded in the CRC806 “Our Way to Europe”, subproject D1 “Analysis of Migration Processes due to Environmental Conditions between 40,000 and 14,000 a BP in the Rhine Catchment and Adjacent Areas”. The PhD candidate will focus on sedimentary and geochemical analysis on loess sections, with the main regional focus in the Rhine and Danube catchments and adjacent areas. In addition, she/he will improve new methods, which were developed during the second phase.

Interested candidates should send the application package (CV; cover letter describing background, training and research interests; certificates; contact information of three referees) as a single PDF to Prof. Dr. Frank Lehmkuhl (flehmkuhl@geo.rwth-aachen.de) not later than 22th September 2017 with reference to the jobnumber 20507.

Further details please see PDF file available below.

In der Arbeitsgruppe "Terrestrial Palaeoclimates" am Max Planck Institut für Chemie ist eine Stelle ausgeschrieben:

"The Research Group in Terrestrial Palaeoclimates at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry focuses on the interactions between climate and landscapes in Central Asia over the last few million years. Essential to this work is establishing quantitative estimates of climatic change in the region. For this, organic geochemistry methods, including the calibration and investigation of various biomarkers as recorders of past temperature and precipitation, plays a critical role. We invite applications for a
PhD candidate in PALAEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION (ORGANIC GEOCHEMISTRY) ..."

Bewerbungen können bis zum 07.08.2017 eingereicht werden. Details zur Stellenausschreibung finden Sie hier.

Im direkten Anschluss an das Sitzungsprogramm der diesjährigen GeoBremen startet am Morgen des 28.9. (Donnerstag, 8:30) die Exkursion der DEUQUA am Bahnhof Hamburg. Ende der Exkursion ist am 30.9. um spätestens 14 Uhr wieder in Hamburg.

Alf Grube führt uns in einem der klas­si­schen Ge­bie­te der Quar­t­är­geo­lo­gie Deutsch­lands und wird zunächst zeigen, wie im Falle des Salz­sto­ckes Elms­horn die ver­mut­lich bis heu­te an­hal­ten­de Auf­wärts­be­we­gung die Erd­ober­flä­che maß­geb­lich ge­prägt hat. Ab­la­ge­run­gen des Alt-Quar­t­ärs und der prä-Els­ter-Zeit sowie des Eem-Interglazials werden in Auf­schlüssen präsentiert. Neben den mehr stratigraphischen werden auch hy­dro­geo­lo­gi­sche As­pek­te in Zu­sam­men­hang mit Gla­zi­al­tek­to­nik so­wie der Bil­dung von Quell­moor­kup­pen mit Quell­kalk­bil­dun­gen der Eem-Warm­zeit und des Ho­lo­zäns vorgestellt, zudem werden prak­ti­sche Aspekte des Geo­top­schut­zes diskutiert. Weiterhin werden jung-saa­le­zeit­li­che Stauch­mo­rä­ne mit gla­zi­tek­to­nisch ver­stell­ten Tills und Landschaften des Eiszerfalls Thema der Exkursion sein.

Der Ex­kur­si­ons­bei­trag liegt bei EUR 190,-, wobei DEUQUA Mitglieder zu einem vergünstigten Preis von EUR 160,- teilnehmen können. Stu­den­ti­sche Mit­glie­der der DEU­QUA er­hal­ten eine weitere Re­duk­ti­on von EUR 60,-, fi­nan­ziert durch unsere Nach­wuchs­för­de­rung. Im Un­kos­tenbeitrag sind der Trans­port in Klein­bus­sen so­wie zwei Über­nach­tun­gen in Dop­pel­zim­mern enthalten. Op­tio­nal kön­nen Ein­zel­zim­mer (EUR 30,- Zuschlag) hin­zu­ge­bucht wer­den, so­lan­ge das be­grenz­te An­ge­bot reicht.

Es sind noch Plätze frei. Wenn Sie teilnehmen möchten, kontaktieren Sie bitte Prof. Dr. Frank Preusser, spätestens bis zum 15. Juli 2017: frank.preus­ser@geo­lo­gie.uni-frei­burg.de.