PalMod 2.2

The overarching goal of the project is to understand and quantify mechanisms and feedbacks of the terrestrial carbon cycle and climate during glacial cycles. 1. Harmonization of vegetation dynamics models across ESMs: The goal is to evaluate and to harmonize the dynamic vegetation model components for the transient deglaciation simulations. How well changes in vegetation cover simulated by the models are staying against observations recorded in pollen archives? 2. Simulation of changes in permafrost carbon: It is known that total amount of carbon in living terrestrial biomass during glacial time was substantially reduced and hence opposed glacial CO2 drawdown. The role of soil carbon is not well understood but it is likely that a large amount of carbon during glacial time was accumulated in the permafrost and beneath the ice sheets. Here we want to study the role of these extremely slow carbon pools during glacial cycle. 3. Simulation of changes in weathering fluxes: The third scientific goal of the proposed project is to test the hypothesis that the altered matter fluxes from chemical erosion during large-scale glaciations significantly altered alkalinity and P fluxes since glacial times. To understand the variation of these fluxes, it is necessary to quantify chemical erosion from the areas where glacial extent variations impact chemical erosion: the area below the ice sheets, the fresh glacial sediment, and the exposed shelf.

The main tasks for the postdoc are (1) to develop a model for permafrost carbon storage within CLIMBER-2 and (2) quantification of the terrestrial mechanisms in transient simulation through the complete glacial cycle. A particular focus is on analysis of the development of permafrost carbon during glacial inception and deglaciation. The main scientific challenge to be met by the Postdoc is to disentangle roles of terrestrial and marine biogeochemical mechanisms in period of abrupt climate and CO2 changes to be done jointly with WP 2.1. Successful fulfilment of all these tasks requires experienced and competent researcher to be employed. This 50%-postdoc position is complementary to the 50%-postdoc position requested for PIK in PalMod 2.1.