Applications for IAPETUS2 2024 studentships are now open. IAPETUS2 will support at least 16 funded postgraduate studentships in 2024. IAPETUS2 is a fully funded doctoral traineeship programme funded as part of the NERC DTP2 process.
Apply for "The Ocean’s Evolution: Deciphering Circulation Changes Since the Last Glacial Maximum" project at the University of St Andrews:
The ocean is thought to have played a central role in changing earth’s climate during the ice ages. Responding to slight changes in Earth’s orbit, changes in ocean circulation, biology, and chemistry resulted in substantial shifts in the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and ocean. Through its impact as a greenhouse gas, this carbon exchange acted to amplify the warming or cooling that initiated from the orbital changes. To date, exactly how and why the ocean circulation changed during these periods remains a mystery (Ferrari et al., 2014; Marzocchi and Jansen, 2019). What is clear, however, is that the properties of the ocean were considerably different during ice ages to what they are today. Recorded in the shells of marine fossils, signals in paleo-oceanographic data show that, as well as a colder surface ocean, the deep ocean was also filled with much colder, saltier water (Adkins, 2013; Tierney et al., 2020; Annan et al., 2022).
What changes took place in the ocean circulation between then and now, and what role did those changes play in creating the comparatively warm and stable climate that we have today?
Previous attempts to understand this have suffered from shortcomings in data, and from a reliance on models that do not represent crucial process well.
Applying novel theory and analysis used to understand changes in the contemporary ocean (Groeskamp et al., 2021; Zika et al., 2021; Sohail et al., 2023), this project will take a fresh perspective on the ocean during the last ice age. Specifically, it will reconstruct changes in the volumetric temperature distribution of the ocean – i.e., how much of the ocean is cold, how much is warm – to constrain the circulation changes that must have taken place over the last several thousand years.
To apply for an IAPETUS2 Studentship, all applicants must complete both the online Studentship Competition Application Form and the Studentship Competition EDI Form, below, by 5th January 2024 at 12 midday (GMT). If you are longlisted, you will be contacted on the 19th January 2024 and invited to put in a full PhD application to the university where the project is based.