Postdoc in Functional Macroecology 80-100%

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL is part of the ETH Domain. Approximately 600 people work on the sustainable use and protection of the environment and on the handling of natural hazards.

The Research Group Dynamic Macroecology of Dr. Niklaus E. Zimmermann studies questions related to spatial ecology, macroevolution and biodiversity conservation. For this group we are looking from
**early fall 2023**,
** **for the duration of
** 2 years**, for a

PostDoc in functional macroecology 80-100% (f/m/d)

as part of a large SNSF (ERC) Advanced Grant project (Predicting hotspots of climate change impacts on ecosystems from an eco-evolutionary biome framework). This project aims at (1) mapping global biomes, (2) projecting global change impacts on biomes, and (3) testing a novel eco-evolutionary biome theory. As part of this large effort, you will develop a reproducible and hierarchical global biome mapping pipeline together with a team of macroecologists, remote sensing specialists, evolutionary biologists and data scientists. You will identify functional first principles for a hierarchical biome structure and mapping pipeline, and model the spatial distribution of biome dominant plant species with biome-characteristic functional traits. Then, in a team effort, you will develop a reproducible biome mapping pipeline. Finally, you will derive bioclimatic biome boundaries in collaboration with macroecologists and remote sensing specialists in the project. The project will be carried out in close cooperation with nine international partners and also contain fieldwork to test the model predictions on four different continents. The main place of work will be the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf, Switzerland.

You hold a PhD degree in ecology, macroecology, functional ecology, or a related field, and you have expert knowledge in the processing of high-volume data with code-based tools. You have proven experience in spatial modelling and scripting languages (e.g. Python, R). Further assets are expertise in spatial ecology and/or remote sensing, and experience in cluster computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The capability to develop new ideas independently is necessary, as are very good English skills (both written and oral). You are a curious, self-reliant person who is also an excellent team worker and values cooperation.
- Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf