Dear All,

Here is a short but highly interesting opportunity.

Best regards,

Jon

 

Coordination of an international multi-partners simulation protocol for
comparing and improving maize crop simulation models used to assess the
impact of CO2 level on yield, water and nitrogen use.

 

 

The Agricultural Models Intercomparison and Improvement Programme (AgMIP)
gathers crop modellers of the world to improve our capacity to assess the
impacts of climate change variables on global yields and agriculture, and to
find sustainable ways to adapt to climate change.  Maize is the most widely
grown staple crop in the world; accurate simulations are required for a
sound assessment of the future food production.  One of the key issues
remains in the uncertainty concerning the ability of crop models to deal
with the CO2 impacts. Most available experiments primarily involve crop
productivity response to nutrients, water, and management, on the shorter
term. Whole-life-cycle crop experiments using the Free Air Carbon Dioxide
Enhancement (FACE) facilities remain rare. The full use of such data to
compare and improve models is critical. AgMIP provides a unique opportunity
to organize and share knowledge about simulating the impacts of CO2 on maize
growth and yield by organising a simulation of FACE experiments conducted at
ambient and elevated CO2, at two levels of water availability in central
Germany over 2 years and at ambient and elevated CO2 levels over 4-5 years
of study in Urbana, Illinois, USA.

The recruited scientist will organise the information from the sites,
communicate input information to the modellers, centralize the simulation
outcomes, and prepare a synthesis of the observed versus simulated effects
of CO2 on growth, yield, and water use. The aim is to determine the sources
of variability among models and tentatively open avenues for model
improvement, either by combining several model approaches or modifying the
way CO2 effects are integrated in models.

  

A network of approximately 20 modellers (to be expanded) has already
participated in the first step of the AgMIP maize pilot (Bassu et al. 2014).
The same network will be continued and provided with data of the
Braunschweig and Urbana FACE experiments. Several simulations series will be
run and the results will be centralized and synthesized by the engineer in
charge of the work. The task will include the writing of a full report on
the procedure and a draft of a paper to be published in a peer reviewed
journal.

 

 

Level : Research engineer

Salary : 2311 to 2482 euros month according to experience.

Location : INRA URP3F, Lusignan, FRANCE

Duration : six month : June-Novembre or July-December 2014 

Academics : PhD or master + matching experience in crop simulation

Skills in 

English : professional

            French: beginner

 

Contact : Jean-Louis Durand

INRA 

URP3F 

CS 8006 

86 600 Lusignan

France

Tel : 33 (0)5 49 55 60 94

[log in to unmask]

 

 

Jon I. Lizaso

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

ETSI Agrónomos

CEIGRAM

Senda del Rey 13. 28040 Madrid, SPAIN

email: [log in to unmask]

Phone: (34) 91 452 4900 ext 1671