Spatial sub-arctic ecohydrology with high-resolution data and process models

Sustainable land management requires a systemic understanding of the water and biochemical cycles from point to catchment scales. Hydrological connectivity, landscape heterogeneity, and changes in land use have a direct impact on the release and transport of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and on the catchment greenhouse gas budget. New methodological and numerical approaches are required to enlarge our understanding and possibilities to facilitate decision-making. In Digital Waters (DIWA) flagship, we deploy and further develop state-of-the-art digital technologies, tools and digital twin approaches to support practical water and catchment management.

We are looking for a talented and motivated candidate dedicated to combining multi-scale data analysis of the water and biogeochemical cycles, especially the lateral transport of water and carbon with numerical modelling. The PhD project aims to better understand variation in ecohydrological connectivity and biogeochemical processes in boreal catchments using data analysis and modelling tools. The main objective of the project is to develop numerical modelling approaches and data analysis tools to develop and support digital transition in catchment management and process understanding.

The doctoral researcher will carry out scientific research together with the multi-disciplinary group of DIWA flagship and national and international collaborators. The doctoral researcher will focus on the following topics: 1) analysing the hydrological connectivity in boreal-subarctic catchments by combining distributed thermal sensing (DTS) and spatial hydrological modelling, and 2) apply a tracer-aided numerical hydrological model to study the hydrological change in sub-arctic catchments subject to climate warming, and 3) analyse the transport of DOC with high-frequency measurements (eg. spectrolyser) and interpret the results using spatial modelling. He/she has access to vast existing field data e.g. from the sub-arctic Pallas supersite and ecohydrological and biogeochemical models. The doctoral researcher is expected to process and analyse datasets, apply and further build numerical models, and write scientific articles from the results.

Work is led by Associate Professor Hannu Marttila and supervised together with Dos. Samuli Launiainen (Luke) and Associate Professor Pertti Ala-aho. Work is done in close collaboration with the ecohydrology team in Luke and other collaborators in DIWA and Pallas supersite. The research methods of the interdisciplinary team include field-based and computational ecohydrology, stable isotopes, remote sensing, and micrometeorological flux measurements.

The position requires an active approach, diligence and cooperation skills, willingness to work as a part of a team and a passion to learn new. We also expect a Master’s degree in, for example, hydrology, water and environmental engineering, environmental physics, physical geography or a related field of environmental sciences. Due to the nature of the described PhD project, the candidate would benefit from the following skills: (1) Good understanding of hydrological and biogeochemical processes; (2) Good and demonstrated data analysis and numerical skills, and knowledge of programming languages such as Python, Julia, R, Matlab, etc. (3) Experience in or interest to learn process-based modelling.

Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and a possibility to work in Luke office in Helsinki.

Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, Faculty of Technology

Hannu Marttila

Samuli Launiainen

Pertti Ala-Aho

Samuli Launiainen