Postdoc in Dendroecology and Ecophysiology (80-100%)

The Research Unit Forest Dynamics investigates how changing environmental conditions affect forest ecosystem functioning. Our new SNSF-funded project Trees-Pace aims to quantify the sensitivity of tree species to climate warming and drought in three major European mountain ranges. By September 1, 2025, or upon agreement, for two years (with the option of one year extension) we are looking for a

Postdoc in Dendroecology and Ecophysiology (80-100%)

You will join a dynamic team working to quantify how the climatic sensitivity of radial growth and physiological processes of key European tree species shifts with elevation. The project involves both field and lab work, with research sites in the Alps (Switzerland), Pyrenees (Spain), and Carpathians (Romania), and laboratory analyses based in Switzerland. You will measure and analyse tree-ring width data to investigate long-term shifts in the elevation of growth optima and climate–growth relationships for six major tree species across the three mountain ranges. You will assess the frequency of short-term climatic stress events—such as damaging late spring frosts and extreme droughts—across elevations and mountain regions for each species and evaluate how the occurrence of these events has changed over time. In addition, you will help in the supervision of a PhD candidate in the same project working on tree-ring carbon and oxygen isotope data and on an experiment studying physiology, growth and phenology of potted saplings along elevational gradients.

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