Postdoctoral researcher in tropical forest modelling

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INRAE presentation

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is a major player in research and innovation. It is a community of 12,000 people with 272 research, experimental research, and support units located in 18 regional centres throughout France. Internationally, INRAE is among the top research organisations in the agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences, as well as in ecology and environmental science. It is the world’s leading research organisation specialising in agriculture, food and the environment. INRAE’s goal is to be a key player in the transitions necessary to address major global challenges. Faced with a growing world population, climate change, resource scarcity, and declining biodiversity, the Institute has a major role to play in building solutions and supporting the necessary acceleration of agricultural, food and environmental transitions.

Work environment, missions and activities

You will be hosted either in the AMAP lab located in Montpellier, France (https://amap.cirad.fr/en/), and more specifically in the DYAFOR team (https://amap.cirad.fr/en/DYAFOR.php), or in the CRBE lab located in Toulouse (https://crbe.cnrs.fr/). The position is part of a project funded by the Agence National de la Recherche on Amazonian Landscapes in Transition (ALT), coordinated by Dr. Jérôme Chave (CNRS, Toulouse, https://chave.ups-tlse.fr/), and which has brought together more than 40 scientists based in Montpellier, Toulouse, and French Guiana. You will thus benefit from the various skills in tropical ecology, vegetation modelling, and remote sensing of a large and enthusiastic team of collaborators. You will work in close collaboration with Isabelle Maréchaux (AMAP, Montpellier) and Jérôme Chave (CRBE, Toulouse) and the rest of the project team.

You will be in charge of:

• Exploring ways to include the representation of the water table and its impacts on plant functioning, community structure and ecosystem functioning, within the latest version of the TROLL model (a trait-based, spatially explicit and individual-based model of forest dynamics; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2024-3104/)
• Testing the effect of different representations, including the ones of tree diversity and soil heterogeneity.
• Building scenarios of climate change, to evaluate the resilience of Amazonian forests to these simultaneous forcing, the main goal of the ALT project.
• Considering opportunities to up-scale the TROLL model to the scale of French Guiana, and comparing its outputs with larger-scale dynamics vegetation models (DGVM).

Special conditions of activity: the position is mainly desk-based. Missions to French Guiana and abroad could be planned for the project meetings and conferences.

Training and skills

Recommended training: you have a PhD in ecology or vegetation modelling.

 Knowledge required: you have a basic knowledge of forest ecology and plant physiology.

Appreciated experience: an experience in vegetation modelling would be highly beneficial.

Skills sought: you have proven quantitative skills, programming skills in a scientific language (e.g. R, C++), a good publication record and the ability to work collaboratively.

INRAE's life quality

By joining our teams, you benefit from (depending on the type of contract and its duration):

- up to 30 days of annual leave + 15 days "Reduction of Working Time" (for a full time);
- parenting support: CESU childcare, leisure services;
- skills development systems: training, career advise;
- social support: advice and listening, social assistance and loans;
- holiday and leisure services: holiday vouchers, accommodation at preferential rates;
- sports and cultural activities;
- collective catering.

How to apply

I send my CV and my motivation letter