Two PhD positions in landscape response to retreating glaciers

Mountain ranges are the primary source of global sediment and hotspots of geohazards. In their high-altitude, alpine regions, climate change is accelerating erosion and landslide activity due to rapid post-glacial landscape adjustment and permafrost degradation. While most current observations of these processes span just a few years or decades, there is an urgent need to understand how these dynamics unfold over much longer timescales (102-104 years) to quantify the impact of present, past and future glacial-interglacial climate changes. This NWO-funded project (Dutch Research Council) aims to tackle this research gap by examining the interactions among erosion, topography, and sediment fluxes over millennial timescales in the Western Southern Alps of New Zealand, and how they are influenced by tectonics. Gaining such insights is crucial for predicting the magnitude and location of future climate-induced geohazards in alpine regions. This project will consist of two tightly integrated PhD positions:
PhD A: Quantifying Post-Glacial Erosion and Sediment Dynamics (main supervisor Duna Roda-Boluda, co-supervisor Benjamin Campforts).

This project will employ a combination of well-established and innovative geochronological techniques, such as 10Be-derived erosion rates, tracer thermochronology, and novel in-situ 14C/10Be ratios as a proxy for landsliding. Samples will be collected on the Southern Alps of New Zealand across a gradient of tectonic and climatic conditions.
PhD B: Developing a Next-Generation Landscape Evolution Model (main supervisor Benjamin Campforts, co-supervisor Duna Roda-Boluda).

In this project, you will develop the POLISHED model—POst gLacIal Surface and geocHronological Evolution Dynamics—designed to simulate hillslope processes and fluvial dynamics during deglaciation, and to explicitly simulate the accumulation and transport of geochronological tracers and track sediment provenance. This project also includes a data collection field campaign in the Southern Alps of New Zealand.