Post-doc Researcher: Understanding Atmospheric Nutrient Deposition to The Ocean Under Present and Future Climates

**Job Reference**:

- 478_24_ES_ADC_R2

**Position**:

- Post-doc researcher: Understanding atmospheric nutrient deposition to the ocean under present and future climates (R2)

**Closing Date**:

- Sunday, 23 November, 2025

**Reference**: 478_24_ES_ADC_R2

**Job title**: Post-doc researcher: Understanding atmospheric nutrient deposition to the ocean under present and future climates (R2)

**About BSC**
- The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.

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**Context And Mission**
- The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (Life, Earth and Engineering sciences) under one roof.
The Earth Sciences Department of the BSC (BSC-ES) carries out research into modelling and understanding the behavior of the Earth’s system. BSC-ES focuses on atmospheric emissions, air quality, mineral dust, climate variability and change, global health resilience, and Earth system services for end users.
Within the BSC-ES, the Atmospheric Composition Group develops a modelling capability to combine atmospheric dynamical and chemical processes relevant at a wide range of spatial scales, and investigates their impacts on weather, air quality, climate, health and ecosystems. A core activity of the group is dust modelling and forecasting, and because of its excellence, the BSC-ES hosts the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System for North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and an AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms. The group is also highly active in the EC Framework Programs and collaborates with the administrations on competitive projects and contracts.

Mineral dust and combustion aerosols carry nutrients that, upon deposition, can fertilize the open ocean, stimulate phytoplankton growth and influence the global carbon cycle. The amount of bioavailable (or soluble) particles deposited largely depends on their origin, size distribution, composition, chemical processing during transport and environmental conditions. Uncertainties remain in how natural and human factors affect the complex and interconnected processes that control nutrient deposition, both in present climate and under future scenarios. Key questions include the present and future evolution of the contribution of dust sources and wildfires to the nutrient cycling, as well as the impact of emission mitigation policies or climate changes.

The Atmospheric Composition group from the ES-BSC is looking for a postdoctoral fellow to improve our understanding of the natural and anthropogenic influences to the nutrient deposition in the ocean. Part of the research will be conducted with the EC-Earth Earth System model, which has an advanced representation of tropospheric chemistry and aerosols, including the atmospheric iron cycle. The researcher will tackle two major sources of nutrients: mineral dust and fires, and work to disentangle their contribution in present and future climates. The work will include exploring the role of vegetation and land-use changes on dust emission, as well as the analysis of different wildfire datasets and the impact of refined emission estimates. The effect of these sources and their variability in ocean biogeochemistry will be explored in collaboration with other researchers in the Department and external collaborators.

**Key Duties**
- Contribute to model developments related to the atmospheric nutrient cycle in Earth System models, particularly improving the representation of natural aerosol sources.
- Design model experiments and run them in HPC systems.
- Gather observations and evaluate model experiments.
- Develop original research and analysis strategies.
- Participate in collaborative projects with partner institutions.
- Present results at international meetings.
- Publis