Creative research opportunity for a postdoctoral scientist with skills in instrumentation and/or isotope biogeochemistry, to join an interdisciplinary team working in the Amazon of Brazil to discover controls on methane and carbon cycling across the terrestrial-aquatic interface, from upland terra firme to seasonally inundated varzea forests. The position is in the research group of Dr. Scott Saleska, with co-mentorship by Dr. Joost van Haren (at UA) and Laura Meredith (at UA) and Dr. Rick Wehr at Aerodyne Research, Inc., with extensive on-the ground collaboration and coordination with colleagues in Santarem, Brazil.

This is a year-to-year appointment, contingent upon funding and performance, with an approximately 24 week commitment to living and working in Brazil. The U.S. component will include training at Aerodyne Research on the use of laser spectrometers for isotope measurements, and instrument testing in advance of field deployment at University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 research facility.

Outstanding UA benefits include health, dental, vision, and life insurance; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; UA/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; access to UA recreation and cultural activities; and more!

The candidate will install and manage cutting edge field instrumentation for measuring ecosystem (via eddy covariance from towers) soil, and individual tree fluxes (via chambers) of  methane, carbon dioxide, and their isotopes in Amazon forests; lead interpretation and publication of resultant data on isotopic composition of fluxes and concentrations of CH4 and CO2, and work as part of an international team comparing carbon flux dynamics to the molecular microbial ecology of methane cycling organisms. The candidate will use a mathematical modeling framework to interpret field observations when possible; and collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of ecosystem modelers, microbial biologists, and forest ecologists.  

The science goals of this project (funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, with contributions from institutions in Brazil), are to discover and predict how methane-cycling microbial soil communities interact with forest ecology and tree stem transport of gases to affect ecosystem carbon and methane cycling at large scales in the Amazon basin.

• Possess a doctorate degree in Science or Engineering upon hire.
• Experience in a technical background related to managing instrumentation.
• Experience in publishing material in peer review literature

• Fluency in Portuguese.
• Scientists with experience working in the area of study (The Amazon).
• Experience in mathematical and numerical modeling.
• Strong interest and experience in team-based interdisciplinary science.