Para hacer la tesis en Canadá en dinoflagelados.

Nos ha llegado información de una oferta de tesis para investigar en dinoflagelados del Plio-Pleistoceno. Os la adjuntamos.

A PhD studentship is available for the NSERC-funded program "Plio-Pleistocene dinoflagellate cysts and paleoceanography of the North Atlantic region" in the Department of Geology, University of Toronto, Canada. Application deadline: FEBRUARY 1, 2012.

Description of PhD project: The North Atlantic Current (NAC) and thermohaline circulation are major drivers of global climate change, transferring heat and moisture to high northern latitudes. Moisture is necessary for ice sheets to accumulate, thereby increasing albedo and causing global temperatures to drop. Hence, the Northern Hemisphere, through its capacity to grow extensive continental ice sheets, has been a major amplifier of global climate change at least since the Late Pliocene. The changing dynamics of the NAC and polar front are accordingly critical to our understanding of past and future climates.

The project will focus on several discrete intervals of the Pliocene, including Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) M2 which occurred 3.29 million years ago and represents the first severely cold episode of the Pliocene. Described as an early failed attempt by the climate system to reach a full glacial state, MIS M2 represents instability in the NAC (e.g. De Schepper, Head & Groeneveld, 2009) that was followed immediately by sustained warmth in the early Late Pliocene.

A novel combination of proxies (dinoflagellate cysts, alkenones, foraminiferal Mg/Ca ratios and oxygen isotopes, ice-rafted debris) will be used to reconstruct sea-surface temperature, salinity, evidence of ice melting, and NAC strength. The resulting reconstructions will provide boundary conditions for NAC shutdown/recovery, and will be used in conjunction with the HadCM35 coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model to simulate conditions during MIS M2 and other time slices.

The project, under the supervision of Prof. Martin J. Head, will include collaboration with Dr Stijn De Schepper (Bergen University, Norway), Dr Jeroen Groeneveld (Bremen University, Germany), Prof. Jörg Bollmann (University of Toronto), and Prof. Alan Haywood (University of Leeds, UK). It is scheduled to begin September 2012. How to apply: The on-line application for admission to the Fall (September) 2012 session at the University of Toronto, Graduate Department in Geology, is now available.

1) Please go to the Geology website at http://www.geology.utoronto.ca
2) Click on the Graduate Studies photo
3) Scroll down to Prospective Students
4) Click on HOW TO APPLY, read carefully and follow the instructions.

Although the application deadline is February 1, 2012, please check the on-line application for admission SOON to determine how much time is needed to assemble all the necessary documentation. For any questions relating to this project, please contact Prof. Martin J. Head (mhead@brocku.ca).