Careers

Open positions in the ICOS field

Ecophysiologist researching water use efficiency in terrestrial ecosystems, French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), Montpellier, France (deadline 13th April 2026)

You will be based at the UMR Eco&Sols, located in Montpellier, France, which comprises 70 permanent staff and brings together INRAE, IRD, Institut Agro Montpellier (formerly SupAgro) and CIRAD. The overall aim of the UMR’s work is to improve our understanding of soil and plant functions, particularly biogeochemical cycles within soils and agro-ecosystems. Our main areas of study are low-input agro-ecosystems comprising perennial, annual, or both types of plants, in tropical and Mediterranean climates.

Scientific context:

Water use efficiency (WUE) represents the ratio between carbon flux and water flux. This metric varies depending on the scale of observation, the numerator considered (leaf photosynthesis, gross primary production via eddy covariance, net primary production NPP/ANPP, growth) and the denominator (leaf transpiration, evapotranspiration ET, transpiration T via sap flow, plot-catchment-regional hydrology).

Understanding variations in WUE according to ecosystem type (forests, plantations, agroforestry systems, savannahs, pastures, crops), climate, phenology, allocation, edaphic factors (soil texture, water and mineral availability) and their interactions is a major challenge for production and adaptation to climatic constraints.

Main tasks:

You will carry out analytical work on water use efficiency (WUE), involving the collection, database entry, diagnosis and analysis of data from experimental sites equipped with measurements of C and H₂O fluxes via eddy covariance (flux towers), net primary productivity (NPP), evaporation and transpiration at various scales. The targeted sites include those of the PEPR FairCarboN/PC3-RIFT project, other volunteer sites within the PEPR FairCarboN project, as well as sites identified in international databases (FLUXNET, AMMA-CATCH, SOERE, ICOS).

You will analyse the diversity of WUE in relation to NPP and its distribution across various ecosystems, focusing in particular on:

• The variability of WUE across different ecosystems and their seasonal and interannual fluctuations
• The main determinants of WUE
• The impact of phenology and aboveground-belowground partitioning on water use efficiency
• The links between C allocation, growth, C storage and WUE

You will organise seminars, webinars and field trips to collect data, in collaboration with the postdoctoral researcher working in parallel on carbon allocation. You will develop a tool for assessing data quality and diversity, enabling the filtering and sorting of data from field sites using eddy covariance, NPP and hydrology. Finally, you will conduct a comparative analysis of the sites

Deadline for applications is 13th April 2026.

Read more and apply here.

Researcher in ecophysiology, primary productivity and carbon allocation in terrestrial ecosystems, French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), Montpellier, France (deadline 13th April 2026)

You will be based at the UMR Eco&Sols, located in Montpellier, France, which comprises 70 permanent staff and brings together INRAE, IRD, Institut Agro Montpellier (formerly SupAgro) and CIRAD. The overall aim of the UMR’s work is to improve our understanding of soil and plant functions, particularly biogeochemical cycles within soils and agro-ecosystems. Our main areas of study are low-input agro-ecosystems comprising perennial, annual, or both types of plants, in tropical and Mediterranean climates.

Scientific context:

The distribution of net primary productivity (NPP) varies considerably across terrestrial ecosystems. For example, in intensive Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, NPP favours stem growth, with exports concentrated at the end of the rotation. Conversely, coconut plantations in Oceania allocate a significant proportion of NPP to rapidly turning over parts (fruits, leaves, inflorescences, fine roots), with continuous exports and regular incorporation of organic matter into the soil.

These differences in carbon allocation raise key questions: what are the impacts on the residence time of carbon in plant compartments, dead biomass and soil? Do systems that prioritise litter store more carbon in the soil, and is this storage more long-lasting?

Main tasks:

You will conduct a comparative analysis of carbon fluxes and partitioning in different ecosystems (forests, plantations, agroforestry systems, savannahs, pastures, croplands) equipped with eddy covariance measurements and compartment-specific NPP monitoring.

Your activities will include:

• Collecting and organising data from PEPR FairCarboN/PC3-RIFT workshop sites and other voluntary networks, as well as international databases (FLUXNET, AMMA-CATCH, SOERE, ICOS)
• Developing a tool to assess the quality and diversity of available data, enabling the filtering of datasets
• Analysis of short-term effects (intra-rotation dynamics, age effects) and long-term effects (inter-rotation dynamics, impacts of exports) on the productivity and sustainability of the systems
• Organisation of seminars and webinars to facilitate data sharing with partner sites
• Close collaboration with the postdoctoral researcher working on water use efficiency (WUE)

Deadline for applications is 13th April 2026.

Read more and apply here.
 

Postdoc on partitioning forest CO2 and water vapor fluxes (3 yrs), ETH Zurich, Switzerland (deadline 1st April 2026)

This position is embedded in a joint project between ETH Zurich, WSL (Dr. Roman Zweifel) and CzechGlobe on Innovative technologies cross scales to disentangle carbon dioxide and evapotranspiration fluxes of forests (INETFLUX). We aim to develop and validate new approaches to partition net ecosystem CO2 fluxes and evapotranspiration into their individual components—gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration as well as transpiration and evaporation—and to identify the environmental drivers that regulate these processes. We will use machine learning approaches (XGBoost, SHAP analyses) for the flux partitioning, complemented by existing tree dendrometer and sap flow measurements as well as stable isotopes in tree rings. Forest sites are located in Switzerland and Czech Republic.

Your main tasks will include:

• Development of knowledge-guided machine learning approaches to partition existing forest flux data sets across Europe
• Identification of flux drivers and their temporal development to understand responses of forests to climate and extreme events
• Compilation of tree dendrometer and sap flow data as additional constraints for flux partitioning
• Responsibility for one eddy-covariance flux station within the Swiss FluxNet
• Presentation of the results and publications
• 3-months stage at CzechGlobe, and
• Assistance in knowledge exchange and capacity building within the project, including workshops, training visits and co-supervision of doctoral students

The position is funded for up to three years. Salary and social benefits are provided according to ETH Zurich rules.

Deadline for applications is 1st April 2026.

Read more and apply here.