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Probing paleoceanographic proxies in the Mediterranean Sea

		Employer: Utrecht University
		Job location: Utrecht Netherlands
		Apply before: 30 Oct 2019

Summary

In this project, we are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate who will generate a mechanistic understanding of the processes involved between production and burial of the most important proxy carriers.

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Project description: Numerous paleoceanographic proxies have been developed and validated of the past decades based on several proxy carriers. Many of these proxy carriers, including calcitic planktic foraminifera and coccolithophores, siliceous diatoms, and organic biomarkers and dinoflagellate cysts are produced in the surface ocean. Their species distribution and chemical composition record physical, chemical and biological parameters of the surface ocean. However, for many of these proxy carriers, the exact depth of production, mechanisms and seasonality of export towards the seafloor and potential changes during export and briefly after deposition in the sediments remain unclear, very often implying unconstrained errors in the proxies.

In this project, we are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate who will generate a mechanistic understanding of the processes involved between production and burial of the most important proxy carriers. The basis will be a unique and remarkably long ongoing time series of sediment trap material from the Mediterranean Sea. The PhD candidate will analyze the broad composition of the material as well as the chemical composition of various biogenic (notably calcitic and organic) and abiotic components of this material to elucidate how the planktonic signal is transported and ultimately preserved in sediments

Supervisors: Sluijs (UU-GEO), Middelburg (UU-GEO)

Host institute: UU-GEO

Required background/expertise:We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate who will generate a mechanistic understanding of the processes involved between production and burial of the most important proxy carriers. The candidate should have a background in Earth, environmental and/or marine sciences.