Closing deadline: 02/03/2023
Location: Cornwall (Hybrid)
Salary: The starting salary will be from £39,745 up to £48,841 on Grade F, depending on qualifications and experience.
Contractual hours 36.5
This new full-time Convex/Blue Marine Foundation funded post is available from 3 April 2023 until 31 March 2027 on a fixed term basis.
This role offers the opportunity for hybrid working – some time on campus in Penryn and some from home.
The post
We are recruiting for a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow position to join the Convex Seascape Survey, a five-year, multi-partner, international collaborative investigation of blue carbon on continental shelves https://convexseascapesurvey.com. The overall aim of the project is to explore and quantify the nearshore ocean carbon sink, asking questions such as where is the carbon, how much is there, where did it come from and how is it affected by human activity?
The particular questions to be explored by the Research Fellow include how does human disturbance, such as by trawling and dredging, influence the processes of ‘blue’ carbon uptake, storage and loss from ocean seascapes.
The research will involve extensive fieldwork from boats, both in the UK and overseas, using a variety of techniques including Remotely Operated Underwater Video, Baited Remote Underwater Video, scuba diving, seabed coring and sediment analyses. Questions you will explore include how does human disturbance affect ecological communities that live on the seabed, and how in turn does that influence carbon uptake and storage. Do protected areas enhance carbon uptake rates and promote more secure storage? These questions will be answered by comparing seabed habitats and carbon stocks across gradients of disturbance and by studying protected areas and contrasting disturbed areas nearby.
You will join a growing, interdisciplinary team of people working within the Convex Seascape Survey, based across organisations encompassing science, environmental conservation and industry.
About you
The successful applicant will be responsible for coordinating a small team of researchers, organising field trips, undertaking research and analysing results. You will be able to develop research objectives, projects and proposals and make presentations at conferences and other events.
Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study. The successful applicant will be a nationally recognised authority in their field and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop research programmes and methodologies. The successful applicant will also be able to work collaboratively, supervise the work of others and act as team leader as required.
