Postdoc in Numerical Modelling of Marine Plastic Pollution and its Sources (1.0 FTE)

The ocean's biodiversity supports the livelihoods of over three billion people, providing vital services, including food and nutrient cycling. The new NECCTON project involves 20 partners from across Europe and will enable the European Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) to deliver novel products that inform marine biodiversity conservation and food resources management. This is achieved by fusing new data into innovative ecosystem models that integrate biological and abiotic components, habitats, and stressors of marine ecosystems.

The team at Utrecht University participates in the NECCTON work package that develops new modelling capability for the simulation of marine pollutants and stressors. We are looking for a postdoc researcher to support this work.

In particular, you will develop new CMEMS products to map and forecast plastic pollution in marine ecosystems. You will coordinate the integration of the pollution codes for plastic and other pollutants developed by partner organisations. Furthermore, you will work with stakeholders to co-design a case study to map the sources of pollutants transported towards Mediterranean aquaculture farm areas.

During the project, you will be involved in:

developing numerical simulations of plastic pollution transport and distribution based on the oceanparcels.org framework; analysing and validating these simulations in the Northwest European Shelf and Arctic regions; interacting with partner organisations who will develop code for other pollutants such as oil, trace metals, and persistent organic pollutants; supporting the integration of the pollutants code into the CMEMS platform; collaborating with stakeholders to map the sources of pollutants transported towards Mediterranean aquaculture farm areas; working within a large, interdisciplinary project spanning many European partners.

At the end of the project, you will have:

expertise in the simulation and visualisation of plastic transport by ocean currents; a deep understanding of the processes to implement state-of-the-art research codes into a widely-used online data platform; developed skills to manage deliverables within European consortia; had the opportunity to set your own research questions and goals; further advanced your skills in numerical modelling and data analysis in python; enhanced your skills to communicate your scientific results to a wide audience including peers, media, and the general public.