Laval University and Ouranos

Université Laval is the oldest French-language university in North America. It is home to some 48,000 students in 17 faculties, 60 departments and schools, and nearly 400 undergraduate and graduate programs in all fields of knowledge. Ouranos is a consortium on regional climatology and adaptation to climate change, acting as a frontier organization between the scientific community and those involved in adaptation in the province of Quebec, Canada. It includes some 450 members from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines, from research to practice.

Homepage: https://sites.google.com/view/hydrometul/home

Surface water availability varies across Quebec (Canada) as a function of climate, land cover, and water use. Our ability to anticipate its evolution in the context of climate change depends, among other things, on the capacity of climate models to accurately represent the processes that govern water and energy budgets at the Earth’s surface. Climate models play a central role in this projection by allowing us to simulate the effects of climate change on precipitation patterns, evapotranspiration, snowmelt, and water flow in rivers and lakes. To be reliable, a climate model must accurately represent these processes and their interactions with the atmosphere. Indeed, energy, moisture, and momentum fluxes at the lower boundary of the atmosphere can have significant effects on the simulated climate. Land surface models (also known as surface schemes) are responsible for providing these fluxes across the soil-biosphere-atmosphere interface in climate models. As in the case of the Canadian model CLASSIC (Canadian Land Surface Scheme Including Carbon cycle), land surface models have undergone rapid development in recent years, especially with the inclusion of biogeochemical cycles and a dynamic representation of vegetation.

The goal of this postdoctoral fellowship is to gain a thorough understanding of the quality of information produced by these land surface models. By comparing simulations produced using different schemes and different spatial resolutions, we will be able to assess how variations in topography, vegetation and the presence of water affect water and energy balances across the province of Quebec. This will be achieved by taking advantage of recent developments within the various simulation platforms operated by Ouranos, which allow the comparison of different surface models such as CLASS, CLASSIC and SVS (Soil Vegetation Snow). This postdoctoral fellowship is an opportunity to improve our understanding of modeled climate processes and thus contribute to the sustainable management of water resources in the face of future climate challenges.

Qualifications and skills
- PhD degree in atmospheric sciences, engineering, physics, geography or similar discipline
- Experience in numerical modeling
- Motivation, teamwork and communication skills
- Programming experience (Python, R, Matlab or equivalent)

Please send an e-mail to Prof. Daniel Nadeau (daniel.nadeau@gci.ulaval.ca) and Dr. Biljana Music (music.biljana@ouranos.ca) with your CV, a short cover letter, examples of previous research (e.g., published articles) and the names of two references.