Modelling of fire activity in the Landes de Gascogne region in response to climate change

We are recruiting for a fully funded 3-year PhD project as part of an ANR funded project to simulate vegetation and fire risk from the late Holocene through 2100 in the Landes de Gascogne region of France. The start date is September-October 2025. The doctoral student will be enrolled at the Université de Montpellier and will spend approximately half of their time working in the Earth Systems Ecology Lab (www.hurteaulab.org) at the University of New Mexico and will be co-advised by Adam Ali and Matt Hurteau. The objective of the project is to understand how landscape vegetation that is unmodified by land-use change alters the fire risk under projected climate as compared to the current pine plantation dominated system. We are using the LANDIS-II forest landscape disturbance and succession model to run simulations informed by paleo-fire and vegetation data. The PhD project will be focused on using a simulation model to understand past fire dynamics and simulating forest and fire conditions under projected climate. The student will work in collaboration with project investigators and the postdoc to develop vegetation layers and parameterize the fire model for LANDIS-II (see- https://fire-landes.com/).
The student will be part of a project team that includes eight investigators, one postdoc and two PhD students. The ideal applicant will have a strong quantitative background, spatial analysis skills, and a strong interest in forests and fire. To apply send your CV, a statement of research interests, and contact information for three references in one pdf file to ahmed-adam.ali@umontpellier.fr and mhurteau@unm.edu. We will be begin reviewing applications on 1juin 2025
Project start date: October 2025
Funding: salary of approximatively 2135 euros per month
The successful candidate must: hold a master’s degree or equivalent in ecology, earth or environmental sciences, or related fields.