PhD in Peatland Mapping at National and European Scales

Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Agroecology programme. The position is available from 15 May 2025 or later. You can submit your application via the link under 'how to apply'.

Title
PhD in Peatland Mapping at National and European Scales

Research area and project description
Peatlands occur in almost all European Union (EU) Member States. Recent assessments show that more than 50% of peatlands are degraded by drainage and used for agriculture, forestry and peat extraction. This results in a series of ecological problems, including declining biodiversity, soil subsidence, higher risk of wildfires, salt intrusion in coastal areas and greater risk of flooding. Furthermore, degraded peatlands release huge quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. The EU is the second largest global emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) from drained peatlands (230 Mt CO2eq/year = 15% of total global peatland emissions), despite accounting for less than 5% of the EU land area. In this regard, the restoration of peatlands and other associated ecosystems, as foreseen under the recently adopted Nature Restoration Regulation, has great potential both ecologically and for the EU’s climate targets.

The overall PhD project is also relevant to EU policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Land Use and Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), Biodiversity Strategy 2030, Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) and Soil Monitoring Law. Overall, this project will contribute to the implementation of the NRR, inform climate change mitigation policy, optimise land use management, and eventually provide a roadmap to more sustainable primary production systems. The outcomes will contribute to the knowledge base being developed by the JRC’s EU Soil Observatory and relevant policy areas addressing soil health and climate change under the European Green Transition.

The PhD student will
1. Improve the mapping of organic soils at both national scales and across the EU to assess policy scenarios for the sustainable management of peatlands.

2. Develop a scalable methodology to identify peatlands under different land cover conditions based on local data in Denmark, remote sensing systems and inputs from other sources (e.g. Greifswald Mire Centre, Wetlands International, Ireland EPA, LUKE, Soil Mission Projects, etc.).

3. Scale up the methodology at European scale using LUCAS topsoil survey, national inventories, COPERNICUS high resolution layers, and data from EU Member States, Soil Mission projects, Global Peatlands Initiative and bilateral contributions from other EU research institutes.

4. Develop a semi-empirical model to predict carbon dioxide and methane emissions reflecting changes in water table and soil properties through, remote sensing indices and new data and literature recently published on this topic. This semi-empirical model will compare its outputs with the emissions/removals from LULUCF inventories of Member States.

5. Model scenarios of peatland management taking into account the objectives of the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) and other policies within the EU Green Deal (Nature Restoration Law, Soil Strategy, etc.). Finally, the candidate will look for the best management (e.g. rewetting) to minimise the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane considering climate change projections.

This project is an international collaboration between Aarhus University and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), with support from the Aarhus University Centre for Circular Bioeconomy (CBIO). The prospective candidate will be part of the Soil Physics and Hydropedology section at the Department of Agroecology (Aarhus University), where she/he will spend 24 months, and the JRC in Ispra, Italy, where she/he will spend 12 months during the second year of the project. We offer a competitive fellowship. While at the JRC in Ispra, you will receive a contract as a Grant Holder 20.

Candidates should, prior to the start of the employment contract, have the nationality of a Member State of the EU or a country associated to the Research Framework Programs (Horizon Europe). Candidates from other countries may also apply provided that they have had a residence for at least five years and a work permit in Italy. They will have to go through the security clearance before they can be granted the Grant Holder contract.
The selection process is composed of two phases: a first selection is made by Aarhus University resulting in a short list of candidates and then a second selection is made by JRC.

Shortlisted applications will be shared between Aarhus University and JRC during the selection process.

Candidates should, at the start of the employment contract with JRC:

• Have the nationality of a Member State of the EU or a country associated to the Research Framework Programs (Horizon Europe).
• Candidates from other countries may also apply, provided that they have had a residence for at least five years and a work permit in Italy. They will have to go through the security clearance before they can be granted the GH contract.
• Be enrolled in the PhD Programme at Aarhus University, Graduate School of Technical Sciences, or have been enrolled in a PhD programme at Aarhus University for fewer than 12 months.
  

Final acceptance as well as enrolment and employment letter from the Graduate School will only be prepared after the final binding decision of the JRC.

• Project description (½-4 pages). This document should describe your ideas and research plans for this specific project. If you wish to, you can indicate an URL where further information can be found.
  

Qualifications and specific competences
You have the following qualifications:

• You have (or are near completion of) a Master in Ecology, Soil Science, Agricultural Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, Bioscience (or a related field).
• You work proactively and independently and have good communication skills.
• You have a very good knowledge of English, both spoken and written.
• If available, relevant publications in peer review journals should be highlighted.
• You are highly motivated, ambitious and result oriented.
  

You have one or more of the following qualifications:

• You have a strong interest in peatlands, mapping/modelling and carbon dioxide/methane emissions.
• Experience with the design and analysis of field experiments.
• Preferably, experience with process-based biochemical models, machine learning, data assimilation, spatial analysis and GIS approaches.
• Programming skills (e.g. R or Python) for data manipulation and visualisation, and to perform statistical analysis (e.g. mixed models).
  

Place of employment and place of work
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Blichers Alle 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark.

Contacts
Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact:

• Professor Mogens H. Greve, [email protected] (main supervisor)
• Assstant Professor Anders B. Møller, [email protected] (co-supervisor)
  

How to apply
Please follow this link to submit your application.

Application deadline is 15 March 2025 at 23:59 CET.

Preferred starting date is 15 May 2025.

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide.

Please note:

• Only documents received prior to the application deadline will be evaluated. Thus, documents sent after deadline will not be taken into account.
• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.
  

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background.