PhD Position: Tracer-aided ecohydrological modelling in snow-dominated ecosystems

The Hydrology Group at the Institute of Environmental Engineering invites applications for a PhD position on isotope-driven ecohydrological modelling.

The partitioning of precipitation into green water (available to plants) and blue waters (contributing to streamflow and groundwater recharge) is an exciting but challenging question, especially in context of a changing hydrological world. The timescales at which water from rainfall and snowmelt become available to plants remain poorly understood. Environmental tracers such as stable water isotopes offer valuable insights into the pathways water takes - from precipitation to its ultimate fates as evapotranspiration, streamflow, or groundwater recharge.

This project is part of a 4-year EU Horizon project aimed at deciphering these complex transport pathways thereby providing novel understanding of the ecohydrological cycle in snow-dominated ecosystems. These process-based insights can then be incorporated into large-scale earth system models.

The successful candidate will apply a numerical model using a rich database of hydrometric and environmental tracer data in several places in Switzerland, Finland, and the Indian Himalayan region, to improve our understanding of water partitioning and its associated flow paths in these different landscapes. The overall aim will be to correctly partition blue and green water fluxes across different elevation gradients and validate these results using a combination of hydrometeorological and tracer data timeseries. We expect active involvement in field efforts (maintenance, data collection, establishment of new experiments) and laboratory analyses. As part of your job, you will contribute novel mechanistic insights to a larger project within an international consortium, involving 18 institutions across Europe and India. You will report through project and group meetings, conference presentations, project deliverables and publications and actively contribute to outreach efforts.

Fixed starting date: February 2025

• MSc degree in Hydrology, Environmental Engineering or Sciences, Physics or related disciplines
• Experience in field work and in-depth understanding of hydrological processes
• Strong numerical skills and previous experience in modelling and programming (Python or R)
• Effective communication in English and acting responsibly
• Courageous, open, curious, treating others equitably and with respect

• A friendly, dynamic and interdisciplinary environment at ETH (Prof. Peter Molnar) at the forefront of experimental and numerical hydrology
• A 100% fixed-term position for 4 years including a number of benefits offered by ETH (see here)
• Wide perspectives in a large international project with frequent exchange with colleagues at ETH and project partners abroad, attendance of international conferences, mentoring programs, training opportunities and a broad international network for career development
• ETH Zurich is one of the leading Universities in Environmental Sciences, a product of the cutting-edge research performed within the Department
• At ETH, PhD completion is expected within 4 years