The Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Ecoscience programme, is seeking applicants for a PhD fellowship/scholarship. The position is available from 01 February 2027 or later. The application deadline is 01 December 2026 at 23:59 CET.
Title:
Carbon flux and particle export along the land-ocean continuum in Greenland’s coastal ocean
Research area and project description:
Applications are invited for a PhD fellowship within the Center for Ice-Free Arctic Research (CIFAR) and the Department of Ecoscience at Aarhus University.
Rapid warming is increasing freshwater inputs to the Arctic Ocean from melting glaciers, ice sheets, and altered precipitation patterns. Additionally, sea ice cover is rapidly declining. These changes are transforming the structure and functioning of the Arctic coastal ocean. CIFAR aims to understand how the complex interplay between ice melt, terrestrial runoff, and changing ocean conditions affects Arctic coastal ecosystems and their functioning across spatial and temporal scales.
Fjord systems are a critical interface between the cryosphere, the terrestrial environment and the coastal ocean. They act as important sites of carbon transformation, burial and export, yet we still have a limited understanding of how ongoing freshening will influence these processes. Increasing terrestrial runoff delivers large quantities of particles, minerals and organic carbon to coastal waters, while simultaneously altering water-column structure, particle dynamics, and marine primary production.
The overall aim of this PhD project will be to determine how carbon is transformed and transported along the land-ocean continuum in Greenland fjords, and how changes in freshwater inputs influence carbon fluxes and particle export in coastal waters.
The project will investigate interactions between terrestrial organic carbon, marine-produced carbon and mineral particles, with a particular focus on understanding which components of the carbon pool are retained, transformed or exported from the water column. Although much of the terrestrial carbon entering Greenland's coastal systems is transported in particulate form, freshwater runoff also supplies dissolved organic carbon that can be highly bioavailable and rapidly processed within coastal ecosystems. Understanding the fate of these different carbon pools is therefore essential for predicting how Greenland's coastal carbon cycle may respond to continued freshening.
The student will have the opportunity to combine field observations from Greenland with laboratory and analytical approaches to investigate the sources, composition, transformation and export of carbon and particles. The precise scientific focus will be developed together with the student and the wider CIFAR research team.