The Wadden Sea is the largest back barrier tidal system in the world and a UNESCO world heritage site because of its ecological significance. A key governing component of the overall system is the exchange of water, salt, nutrients, sediment, larvae, etc. between basins and with the North Sea. Recently, we have shown that the nature of this exchange is very different than previously thought due to the dominant role of the wind, which imposes an enormous variability, with storms having a disproportionately high impact. This view of the Wadden Sea as an event-driven system means that understanding and quantifying the exchanges and transports requires the inclusion of a wide range of forcing conditions over a long time span. 

In this ENW(Domain Science)/NWO project, we investigate the exchange between the tidal basins and the North Sea for the period 1980-2015 in the Dutch Wadden Sea.

This project is a collaboration between the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ, Yerseke), the Department of Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology, and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Warnemünde, Germany.

In this position you will develop and apply new tools to quantify the exchange, the flushing characteristics of the basins, and the connectivity in the system, accounting for its event-driven character, and will analyze results of new long-term numerical simulations of the hydrodynamics to link the variability in the forcing to the exchange and transport in the region. This will provide a comprehensive view of the variability in the state of the system and in the exchanges at a wide range of time scales.

Here are some features that make you the ideal candidate for this Post-doctoral research position:

• You have a PhD in (coastal) physical oceanography, fluid dynamics, or coastal civil engineering or aim to submit your PhD thesis for assessment by early summer 2022.
• You have affinity with numerical models and analysis of large datasets.
• You have proven abilities to publish and present at a high international level.
• You are a team player, are well organized, are ambitious, and have excellent written and oral communication skills.

We highly encourage applicants from all members of our community and of diverse background, including LGBT+ and BAME communities, to join us.

We are offering a 18 months full-time Postdoc position. Employment of this position at Royal NIOZ is by NWOI (The Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research). The salary is compliant to the CAO-OI (Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Research Institutes) scale 10 or 11 depending on relevant experience. Furthermore NIOZ offers a pension scheme, a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, a year-end bonus of 8,3% of the gross annual salary, flexible work arrangements and 42 days of holiday leave (fulltime position).

You may expect attractive secondary employment conditions. We offer generous relocation expenses for employees coming from abroad and support with finding accommodation.

Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems

The department of Estuarine and Delta Systems research (EDS, NIOZ-Yerseke) studies how the interplay between biota, hydrodynamics, sediment dynamics and biochemistry shapes the estuarine, deltaic and coastal environments in the context of natural and human-induced environmental changes. Central to our department is a multidisciplinary holistic approach that combines state-of-the-art biophysical, biochemical, ecological, physiological measurements, remote sensing, and manipulative experiments with mathematical and numerical modelling to create in-depth understanding of the processes that control estuarine and delta systems.