PostDoc in Macroecology and Biome Mapping; f​/m​/d

Post Doc in Macroecology and Biome Mapping 70-100% (f/m/d)

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) is part of the ETH Domain, employing around 600 people dedicated to sustainable use and protection of the environment and natural hazard management.

The Research Group Dynamic Macroecology, led by Dr. Niklaus

E. Zimmermann, investigates questions related to spatial ecology, macroecology,
-evolution and global biome dynamics. We seek a postdoctoral researcher for a duration of 18 months (with a possibility of extension) to join a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) ERC-Advanced Grant project (Predicting hotspots of climate change impacts on ecosystems from an eco‑evolutionary biome framework).

Key responsibilities include:

• Developing and maintaining a mapping pipeline for global biomes using gridded climate, remote‑sensing, species‑occurrence and plant‑trait data.
• Analyzing biome boundaries and mapping the spatial distribution of important plant functional types worldwide.
• Testing and refining a novel eco‑evolutionary biome biogeography theory by confronting its predictions with empirical data.
• Generating high‑quality products for analysis and collaboration with international partners.
• Contributing to publications, talks and project reports.

Required qualifications:

• PhD in ecology or a closely related field.
• Expert knowledge in macroecology, functional ecology, high‑volume data processing, spatial ecology/modeling and coding with R, Python and GIT.
• Additional assets: expertise in remote sensing, cluster computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
• Strong analytical and independent research skills; excellent written and oral English.
• Team‑working ability and a collaborative attitude.

WSL is committed to diversity and inclusion. We actively promote gender equality and foster an open, inclusive work environment.