PhD developing reconstructions storms in warmer climate

We invite applications for a PhD position in the 4-year research project PAST, funded by the Dutch Research Council ().

Project PAST, “A proxy-model alliance to decode storms in warmer climates”, aims to quantify the occurrence of storms over western Europe during warmer climates. Climate change is known to increase the risk to societies and ecosystems from extreme weather events. But these short-lived events are notoriously hard to reconstruct and model, so our understanding of their behaviour during warmer climates is limited.

To learn from past warmer climates and better understand the link between climate and extremes, we can use proxy-based climate reconstructions and climate models for past warmer climates. However, the temporal and spatial resolutions of these have so far been inadequate to capture climate extremes.

PAST overcomes this obstacle, both from the side of proxy reconstructions and of climate modelling. It develops the first reconstructions of storms in the geological past using fossil shells. Plus, it produces new, high-resolution computer models of the warm Last Interglacial period. Finally, PAST creates new knowledge by synthesising these two approaches through advanced statistics.

This exciting PhD project is one of two PhD projects within PAST. As a PhD candidate, your goal is to develop the first-ever reconstructions of storms in the geological past. You will do so in three steps:
Firstly, you lead biological growth experiments with live molluscs (cockles, mussels and clams) at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). This helps you understand how these animals build their shells on hourly timescales and record storm events. Secondly, you analyse the shells of live-collected molluscs in the North Sea and Wadden Sea in the state-of-the-art NIGEL geochemistry lab, to test how they recorded natural storms.

Thirdly, you apply your knowledge to reconstruct storm distributions during the Last Interglacial period. Using fossil shells from the Netherlands, Canary Islands and the Azores islands, you compare how storminess changed in a warmer climate at different latitudes. Throughout the project, you work closely with the other PhD candidate of PAST, who will work on the high‑resolution climate models. You contrast and combine data across reconstructions and models, and enhance our understanding of the link between climate and extreme weather in Europe.

You will work in close collaboration with colleagues from the NIOZ and TNO‑Geological Survey of the Netherlands along with other partners from Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the universities of the Azores and Tenerife (La Laguna). As part of the PhD project, you will visit collections and core repositories of the partner institutes and join field trips to collect molluscs in the research area.

• Design and carry out your own biological experiments
• Carry out high‑resolution chemical measurements in the VU lab
• Place your results in the context of existing reconstructions and the new PAST‑model outcomes
• Present your research at scientific conferences and publish your results in scientific journals
• Contributing to teaching and supervising in bachelor and master programs