Postdoctoral Researcher, Extreme Climate Events, Hydrology, and Carbon Cycling in Northern Envi

Organisation/Company University of Oulu Research Field Environmental science » Earth science Environmental science » Ecology Environmental science » Other Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Final date to receive applications 16 Mar 2026 - 21:59 (UTC) Country Finland Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

The University of Oulu is a multidisciplinary, international research university, with about 4000 employees who produce new knowledge based on high-standards research and provide research based education to build a more sustainable, smarter, and more humane world. The University of Oulu community has about 17,000 people in total. Our northern scientific community operates globally and creates conditions for the emergence of innovations.

We are now looking for a

Postdoctoral Researcher

to join our project investigating how extreme climatic events, such as heatwaves, droughts, winter warming episodes, and rain‑on‑snow events, shape hydrology and carbon cycling in high‑latitude northern ecosystems. These extreme events are increasing in frequency and extent across the Arctic and can trigger rapid ecological responses that surpass the impacts of gradual, long‑term warming.

Understanding these processes requires the integration of detailed site‑level observations with large‑scale data synthesis. Our project combines both approaches to reveal how short‑term climatic extremes alter water flow, soil conditions, vegetation dynamics, and ecosystem carbon fluxes across northern environments.

Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering research unit, at the Faculty of Technology, carries out research on land, water and energy systems and their interaction. Climate change, environmental degradation and energy transition are societal challenges that motivate the research to find sustainable solutions. Our water research includes a strong focus on water engineering, hydrological modelling, hydrological process, groundwater, water quality, water supply and protection.

It also includes studies of ecosystem and vegetation dynamics and how these interact with hydrology and climate. This research involves studies at Oulanka research station as well as other northern sites and how data from these boreal sites compares with long‑term monitoring data from low‑ and high‑arctic sites in Greenland. An effort to study vegetation and ecosystem dynamics along this gradient, with a focus on how climatic driven extreme events as drivers have recently been supported by the Kvantum Institute Spearhead program as well as the Flagship DIWA, leading to the following announcement.

You will work with extensive datasets from multiple Arctic and sub‑Arctic research sites, complemented by large climate, hydrology and ecological databases. The main tasks include data mining, harmonizing, and analysing these diverse data sources to identify how specific extreme climatic events alter water flow, soil conditions, vegetation dynamics, and carbon fluxes. Such disturbances can influence both vertical exchanges between ecosystems and the atmosphere and the lateral transport of carbon through hydrological pathways.

You will join a collaborative research team investigating how abrupt climatic events shape ecosystem carbon balance, including processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, and the export of dissolved organic carbon. Your work will contribute to developing an integrated, multi‑site understanding of the Net Ecosystem Carbon Balance (NECB) at both catchment and regional scales.

• Compile and manage datasets from long‑term monitoring sites across northern landscapes.
• Extract and calculate indicators of extreme events from reanalysis products (e.g., heatwaves, rain on snow events).
• Analyse carbon cycling and hydrological responses before, during, and after extreme events.
• Contribute to multi‑site synthesis to understand regional patterns and drivers.
• Publish findings in international peer‑reviewed journals and present…