CIRES/ EARTH LAB Carbon Dynamics across Disturbance Legacies in Western U.S. Forests Post-Doc
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- University of Colorado Boulder
- Location
- Boulder, Colorado
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- Position Type
- Postdoc
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- Full Time
- Institution Type
- Four-Year Institution
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Requisition Number:21210Location: Boulder, Colorado Employment Type:Research FacultySchedule:Full-Time Close All Job SummaryEarth Lab is seeking a Post-Doctoral Research Scholar to lead a research agenda in the following area: Carbon Dynamics across Disturbance Legacies in Western U.S. Forests. This targeted research area represents Earth Lab’s efforts to explore natural and social system vulnerability and resilience to global environmental change, while also capitalizing on the diversity of data available to generate new insights.
This role will help answer whether the trajectory of carbon recovery in burned forests is changing with increased regional warming and drying. Emergent technologies and methods from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) allow construction of 3D-point-cloud representations of trees that can enable rapid monitoring of forest structure at sub-meter resolution across very large tracts (thousands of hectares)—effectively providing a missing scale of observations. With this and other advances, regional to continental scale ecology now requires exploration of large, heterogeneous data. Key efforts of this postdoc will be to:
Apply emerging UAS technologies and methods to estimate tree-level aboveground biomass to then explore carbon recovery post-fire in the NEON southern Rockies domain.
Explore fundamental drivers of carbon recovery post-disturbance across a chronosequence of fire history in conifer forests of the western U.S. (1984-present).
Help to train the next generation of Earth analysts in data and computer-intensive science, cutting-edge ecosystem carbon measuring techniques, and large-team collaboration.
This effort will accomplish these aims by testing hypotheses and deriving trainings from exploration of a vertical column of observations, including aboveground biomass data from: field-based inventories, UAS, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) airborne observation platform (including the local Niwot Ridge NEON/LTER site), and the space-borne Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation. The postdoc will conduct research and contribute to teaching a new graduate-level course in ecosystem carbon. This position is funded as part of a new NSF CAREER grant.Who We AreAt CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, more than 800 environmental scientists work to understand the dynamic Earth system, including people’s relationship with the planet. CIRES is a partnership of NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder, and our areas of expertise include weather and climate, changes at the Earth’s poles, air quality and atmospheric chemistry, water resources, and solid Earth sciences. Our vision is to be instrumental in ensuring a sustainable future environment by advancing scientific and societal understanding of the Earth system.
https://cires.colorado.edu/
Earth Lab, funded by the University of Colorado Boulder’s “Grand Challenge: Our Space, Our Future” and part of CIRES, seeks post-doctoral researchers to join a dynamic team pushing the frontiers of coupled Earth and social system science. Earth Lab’s mission is to harness the data revolution through research, analytics, and education to accelerate understanding of global environmental change to help society better manage and adapt. To learn more about Earth Lab, visit Earth Lab’s website (http://www.colorado.edu/earthlab/) and Earth Lab’s learning portal (www.earthdatascience.org).What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be
Review of applications will begin October 18. The position will remain open until filled.
Note: Application materials will not be accepted via email. For consideration, applications must be submitted through CU Boulder Jobs.Posting Contact InformationPosting Contact Name: Jennifer Balch, Director of Earth Lab & Department of GeographyPosting Contact Email: jennifer.balch@colorado.eduThe University of Colorado Boulder is committed to building a culturally diverse community of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to contributing to an inclusive campus environment. We are an Equal Opportunity employer, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.
This role will help answer whether the trajectory of carbon recovery in burned forests is changing with increased regional warming and drying. Emergent technologies and methods from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) allow construction of 3D-point-cloud representations of trees that can enable rapid monitoring of forest structure at sub-meter resolution across very large tracts (thousands of hectares)—effectively providing a missing scale of observations. With this and other advances, regional to continental scale ecology now requires exploration of large, heterogeneous data. Key efforts of this postdoc will be to:
Apply emerging UAS technologies and methods to estimate tree-level aboveground biomass to then explore carbon recovery post-fire in the NEON southern Rockies domain.
Explore fundamental drivers of carbon recovery post-disturbance across a chronosequence of fire history in conifer forests of the western U.S. (1984-present).
Help to train the next generation of Earth analysts in data and computer-intensive science, cutting-edge ecosystem carbon measuring techniques, and large-team collaboration.
This effort will accomplish these aims by testing hypotheses and deriving trainings from exploration of a vertical column of observations, including aboveground biomass data from: field-based inventories, UAS, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) airborne observation platform (including the local Niwot Ridge NEON/LTER site), and the space-borne Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation. The postdoc will conduct research and contribute to teaching a new graduate-level course in ecosystem carbon. This position is funded as part of a new NSF CAREER grant.Who We AreAt CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, more than 800 environmental scientists work to understand the dynamic Earth system, including people’s relationship with the planet. CIRES is a partnership of NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder, and our areas of expertise include weather and climate, changes at the Earth’s poles, air quality and atmospheric chemistry, water resources, and solid Earth sciences. Our vision is to be instrumental in ensuring a sustainable future environment by advancing scientific and societal understanding of the Earth system.
https://cires.colorado.edu/
Earth Lab, funded by the University of Colorado Boulder’s “Grand Challenge: Our Space, Our Future” and part of CIRES, seeks post-doctoral researchers to join a dynamic team pushing the frontiers of coupled Earth and social system science. Earth Lab’s mission is to harness the data revolution through research, analytics, and education to accelerate understanding of global environmental change to help society better manage and adapt. To learn more about Earth Lab, visit Earth Lab’s website (http://www.colorado.edu/earthlab/) and Earth Lab’s learning portal (www.earthdatascience.org).What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be
- Work with the team to meet research goals of this position, with the expectation of submitting one manuscript for publication to a peer-reviewed journal by the end of Year 1, and contribute to and/or submit an independent funding proposal.
- Use research agenda to develop use cases for the Analytics Hub (staff and Viz-studio) with heterogeneous and/or big data streams that require specialized data management, analysis, and/or visualization support (with emphasis on data from the Earth Observation enterprise, from ground-based to space-based sensors).
- Contribute to discussions with industry, federal, and other academic partners, and support opportunities to make Earth Lab visible in the community.
- Contribute to the open, reproducible science objectives of Earth Lab. This could include contributing or publishing well-documented data sets or code recipes that could serve multiple users within Earth Lab or other audiences.
- Work on synergistic activities across the post-doc cohort and Science Teams, including collaboration on external proposals, papers, workshops, opportunities with industry/federal partners, or other collaborative activity and should amount to 20% effort.
- This position is located at the University of Colorado at Boulder's main campus
- All postdoc positions are for one year with the possibility of extension based on performance and funding availability.
- Review of applications will begin October 18. The position will remain open until filled.
We can offer a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package.
BenefitsThe University of Colorado offers excellent benefits, including medical, dental, retirement, paid time off, tuition benefit and ECO Pass. The University of Colorado Boulder is one of the largest employers in Boulder County and offers an inspiring higher education environment. Learn more about the University of Colorado Boulder.
Be StatementsBe Engaged. Be Innovative. Be Boulder.What We Require- Ph.D. in a related field is required, such as Geography, Ecology, Environmental Studies, Forestry, Remote Sensing, or other.
- Previous experience and skills in one or more of the approaches described in the job summary (e.g., UAV data acquisition and approaches, remote sensing data, data integration across multiple sources, etc.).
- Demonstrated contributions to open science (i.e., publicly available and/or reproducible data, code, workflows, and/or tools) or willingness to contribute.
- Demonstrated publication and grant-writing skills.
- Team spirit and interest in interdisciplinary settings, with a willingness to engage with Earth Lab’s Analytics Hub and Education Initiative teams.
- The ability to work with an interdisciplinary team.
- A strong quantitative background is necessary.
- Background expertise in and theoretical understanding of vegetation and carbon dynamics.
- Experience in integrating and analyzing large, and/or heterogeneous data sets.
- Experience in working with a high-performance computing or cloud computing environment is a plus (Earth Lab supports both HPC & cloud compute on AWS).
- Experience in, or ability to learn, appropriate programming and data analytic tools. Ideally the candidates will have experience in programming languages (e.g., R, Python, or others), can work in different environments (e.g., Linux), and are well versed in geospatial analysis software (e.g., QGIS).
- Resume or CV
- Cover letter addressed to the Search Committee briefly describing your qualifications, professional goals, and specific interest in this position. Please highlight your past research and teaching experience related t this position.
- List of contact information for 3 references who will be willing to write a confidential Letter of Recommendation for you.
Review of applications will begin October 18. The position will remain open until filled.
Note: Application materials will not be accepted via email. For consideration, applications must be submitted through CU Boulder Jobs.Posting Contact InformationPosting Contact Name: Jennifer Balch, Director of Earth Lab & Department of GeographyPosting Contact Email: jennifer.balch@colorado.eduThe University of Colorado Boulder is committed to building a culturally diverse community of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to contributing to an inclusive campus environment. We are an Equal Opportunity employer, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.
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