Postdoc offer OFB / INRAE

Despite the increasing number of prospective studies, there is still a lack of detailed characterization of the thermal evolution of water bodies on a national scale for the previous and coming decades, while these data are essentials to characterize communities’ response to multiple stressors.To bridge that gap, “pôle ECLA” has been working on better characterizing waterbodies response to climate change through in situ monitoring (a network of buoys with autonomous thermistors has been deployed in 2013 and is still expanding), integration of satellite imageries, and modelling. Currently, a model is available at the national scale for 401 lakes and provide a simplified representation in two compartments (epilimnion and hypolimnion) (Prats & Danis, 2019; Sharaf et al., 2023). These data have proven to be useful to contextualize freshwater biodiversity sampling efforts (e.g., Leclerc et al., 2023; Rocha et al., 2023). However, the semi-empirical model outputs limit the ability to represent certain key thermal variables, such as thermocline depth. Besides, the model does not account for water level fluctuations, which impact habitat available and thermic response to air temperature. These limitations hinder scientific progress on critical issues related to the effects of climate change on French lakes, such as the occurrence of cyanobacteria blooms or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which strongly depend on the daily and seasonal variations in the vertical and spatial temperature profiles.

To address these gaps, it is essential to refine daily-scale estimates and develop a continuous representation of the vertical structure of the water column. These improvements would provide managers with a more accurate description of the evolution of thermal regimes and habitats, while supporting ongoing programs aimed at predicting blooms and GHG emissions.

The objective of this project is to refine the thermal evolution of water bodies and model thermocline depths to better define lake habitats.

More information are available at https://jobs.inrae.fr/en/ot-23052.