Post-Doctoral Fellowships in the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observatory programme (SOCCO)
CAREER OPPORTUNITY – Post Doctoral Fellowships. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is a leading scientific and technology research organisation that researches, develops, localises and diffuses technologies to accelerate socio-economic prosperity in South Africa. The organisation’s work contributes to industrial development and supports a capable state.
The CSIR has three opportunities for Post-Doctoral Fellowships in the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observatory programme (SOCCO), within the Smart Places cluster, and hosted at the Marine Institute (Ma-Re), UCT. The purpose of the fellowships is to conduct research in line with three H2020 projects in which SOCCO is a partner. The positions are offered as a two-year contract with the possibility of extension for a third year. These opportunities are based in Rosebank, Cape Town. For more information about the programme and cluster please visit http://www.socco.org.za and http://www.csir.co.za/smart-places respectively.
- Southern Ocean CO2 and heat uptake: the future role of the Southern Ocean ininfluencing the rates of global warming depends critically on the sensitivity of its uptake and storage of heat and anthropogenic CO This sensitivity is thought to be largely dependent on the response in the physics of the mixed layer and sea ice system to climate change. This fellowship aims to use air-sea CO2 reconstructions, high resolution models as well as Earth System Models (ESM) to examine the climate sensitivity of the mechanisms that explain CO2 and heat ocean-atmosphere fluxes in the Southern Ocean.
- Southern Ocean emerging feedbacks in carbon cycle: the sensitivity of coupled ocean- atmosphere physical and ocean biogeochemical mechanisms to climate forcing can lead to regional non-linear responses that lead to changing feedbacks, thresholds of abrupt change and tipping pointes. This fellowship aims to use the South African ESM combination with other CMIP6 models to examine how non-linearities in the carbon cycle can be linked to specific physical and biogeochemical mechanisms, their scales and dynamics in the Southern
- Southern Ocean Biogeochemical model development: the sensitivity of the ocean biological carbon pump to climate forcing is critical to project changing carbon feedbacks in the second half of the 21st century, particularly in the Southern Ocean. For this fellowship the successful candidate will be a biogeochemical modeller, who will be responsible for model development through improved parameterisations of physiological processes for phytoplankton in coupled biogeochemical-physical models. This will be done based on experience in parameterisations for functional responses to multiple Observational data will be collected under varying conditions that will be used to derive and implement new relationships into numerical models.
Key responsibilities:
- Initiate further independent research within the strategic objectives of the current programme;
- Assist with Master’s and Doctoral supervision of students in support of the SOCCO/UCT- Ma-Re human capital development mission;
- Lead, assist and supervise field data collection and model development;
- Contribute to the writing of numerous reviewed journal publications, and be the lead author of at least
Qualifications, skills and experience:
- A Doctoral degree in Ocean CO2 or biogeochemical modelling and/or observations, withexperience in modelling;
- Experience in acquiring and processing large global data sets as well as running and analysing model outputs;
- Proficiency in Python
Closing date: 15 May 2020
PLEASE NOTE THAT FEEDBACK WILL BE GIVEN TO SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES ONLY.
For more info, please contact the CSIR Recruitment Centre on 012 841 4774 or email us at Recruitmentinfo@csir.co.za
The CSIR is an equal opportunity employer. As such, it is committed to the Employment Equity Act of 1998. By applying for this position at the CSIR, the applicant understands, consents and agrees that the CSIR may solicit a credit and criminal report from a registered credit bureau and/or SAPS (in relation to positions that require trust and honesty and/or entail the handling of cash or finances) and may also verify the applicant’s educational qualifications and employment history. The CSIR reserves the right to remove the advertisement at any time before the stated closing date and it further reserves the right not to appoint if a suitable candidate is not identified.
PLEASE NOTE THAT FEEDBACK WILL BE GIVEN TO SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES ONLY.
For more info, please contact the CSIR Recruitment Centre on 012 841 4774 or email us at Recruitmentinfo@csir.co.za
The CSIR is an equal opportunity employer. As such, it is committed to the Employment Equity Act of 1998. By applying for this position at the CSIR, the applicant understands, consents and agrees that the CSIR may solicit a credit and criminal report from a registered credit bureau and/or SAPS (in relation to positions that require trust and honesty and/or entail the handling of cash or finances) and may also verify the applicant’s educational qualifications and employment history. The CSIR reserves the right to remove the advertisement at any time before the stated closing date and it further reserves the right not to appoint if a suitable candidate is not identified.
The global changes affecting the terrestrial ecosystems are matched by threats on the marine ecosystems, such as the warming of the ocean and concomitant changes in ocean structure, or marine pollution. The extent of the ecosystem alteration is still a matter of heated debates, especially when including stakeholders from industry in the discussion. Science is still far away from having all answers policy makers need. Furthermore, the notion that the oceans provide unlimited resources is still widely spread in society, despite a growing perception of rather straightforward threats such as overfishing.
Marine primary production in the world’s oceans is generally limited by the availability of nutrients in the upper, sunlit waters. Nitrogen availability tends to limit productivity throughout much of the low-latitude oceans. The primary productivity in the Southern Ocean, in contrast, is primarily limited by constraints in bioavailability of trace metals such as iron that are vital for various biochemical processes, such as chlorophyll synthesis and nitrate utilization. Phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean usually occur near the few islands scattered in the Southern Ocean, such as South Georgia or Kerguelen, and close to retrieving ice around Antarctica. In addition, changes in productivity are linked to times or areas of increased dust input. Increased primary productivity leads to two major consequences: a) food-web stimulation, and thus impact on biodiversity and fisheries and b) enhanced biological pump, and thus atmospheric CO2 sequestration.
Phytoplankton and microbial communities are normally studied separately, even though it is important to assess their tight interactions. Marine microbes compete for macro- and micronutrients with phytoplankton and largely control micronutrients bioavailability at the ocean surface, but they also control an efficient recycling system below the subsurface. This tight interplay between the microorganisms and the ocean’s chemistry has thus important implications for fisheries and for the global climate. The role(s) of microbial communities in the Southern Ocean are understudied, to the extent that it is often not known what species are present. The development of fast and cheap DNA sequencing technologies allows for their identification, and we will help fill this knowledge gap. The improved understanding of the functioning of the Southern Ocean ecosystem will then allow improving models projecting future global changes.
The project is involved in science awareness (left Susanne Fietz during an interview at the East Pier, Presentattion to Sun Valley School, Presenatition to Antarctic Season 2019). For more information visit their 
Johannes Jacobus Viljoen grew up in the small town of Wolseley in the upper Breede River Valley and started his tertiary education at Stellenbosch University after graduating high school in Ceres. He completed a BSc in Earth Science in 2015 and became the first member in his family with a university qualification. In 2016, he completed a BSc (Hons) Earth Science degree in Environmental Geochemistry where he gained a keen interest in marine biogeochemistry and research. He continued his studies as a graduate research student on phytoplankton distribution in the Southern Ocean at Stellenbosch University within the 
Johan is currently a 
He attended his first SANAP symposium in 2016. He attended the Polar 2018 conference in Davos, Switzerland in 2018 where he presented an oral presentation on his research. He later joined the South African branch of the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS-SA) as a committee member during his second SANAP symposium in 2018. He currently serves on the APECS-SA national committee as one of the co-chairs. From 2018 – 2019, he also served as the postgraduate representative of the Department of Earth Sciences at SU on the postgraduate committee of the Faculty of Science.
Johan is driven to learn more about marine science and sharing his research and experiences with others. To date, he has published two scientific articles from his MSc research and aims to follow an academic career. In August 2017, he was awarded the opportunity by the 
In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, watching documentaries and movies based on true events, reading, hiking and travelling. He considers himself to be a bit of a coffee connoisseur, a budding gardener and an experimental cook.
is a 
As part of an international research consortium between the Universities of Aalto and Oulo, Aker Arctic, Det Norske Veritas, Rolls Royce, Wartsila and STX Europe the SVRG performed vibration comfort measurements on board the SA Agulhas II, the new polar supply research vessel. The SA Agulhas II was put to the test during two days of ice-breaking operations in the Bay of Bothnia in Finland during ice-trails as well as a 76-day voyage between Cape Town and Antarctica. Sound levels and vibration comfort will be determined in conjunction with exterior ice conditions and ice-loads on the ship hull in an on-going research project which enables a unique comparison between Arctic and Antarctic conditions.
assessment with the associated measurement equipment and software tools to contribute to the international research arena. Annie Bekker host an annual Symposium on the S.A. Agulhas II where international and national stakeholders give new insight and feedback on research. During the symposium students of the SVRG also get the time to present their research. To open the minds of these students and to taught them the necessary skills Annie Bekker make use of expertise from all over the world.
aspects of signal processing. Professor Brandt up-skilled students from the SVRG in select topics related to data quality control and signal processing. Three days were spent on a deep dive into theory, balanced by practical application. An essential skill of any vibration engineer is “to know how to hit a structure with a hammer”.
probably the time to break from studies, our first “Saturday Student” in the Mid-Month series is Kolisa Yola Sinyanya or for those who are familiar with Twitter, 
She is a PhD candidate in Oceanography at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Her PhD research is part of a growing body of work that critically examines bio-geochemical cycling in the ocean, particularly regions that are currently under-sampled. The research aims involve exploring phytoplankton community dynamics and microbe-nutrient interactions in the Indian Ocean, including subtropical and Southern Ocean waters. To date, Kolisa has been awarded the Advancing Womxn Fellowship in the Department of Oceanography awarded under the “For womxn by womxn: conducting research in a field in which womxn are in short supply” category of a new initiative at UCT championed by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor. She is one of the researchers who were on 5-week cruise to Marion Island in the Sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean in 2017.
in effective science communication through public speaking, scientific writing and television features. In February of 2020, she presented one of her PhD chapters at Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego, USA. Towards the end of 2019, the new 
She has taken part in several science communication activities, including 
On 
See amazing images on the SANAP website 
