PhD Position Opening
Drought Effects on Carbon–Water Trade-Offs in European Forests
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU, https://www.czu.cz/en)
Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences (FLD, https://www.fld.czu.cz/en)
Forest Risk Research Center
Application deadline: 15 March 2026
Start date: October 2026 Duration: 4 years (full-time)
Supervisor: Laura Dobor, Ph.D.
Net monthly income: minimum 25 000 CZK
Study program: Global Change Forestry (https://www.fld.czu.cz/cs/r-6825-studium/r-6832-co-muzete-studovat/r-7557-doktorske-studium/r-14313-global-change-forestry)
Application procedure: https://www.fld.czu.cz/en/r-9414-study/r-11075-admission-procedures/r-13202-admission-procedure-for-doctoral-study
Online application system: https://is.czu.cz/prihlaska/
Project Summary
We invite applications for a fully funded PhD position focusing on carbon–water dynamics, drought impacts, and ecosystem modeling, focusing on pan-European forests. The position is mainly funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR, https://gacr.cz/en/) through a Restart Grant with a duration of four years.
The project aims to identify the patterns and drivers of drought impacts on carbon-water cycling in European forests, focusing on water-use efficiency (WUE) across various tree species and environmental conditions. Climate change and extreme events affect WUE by altering biophysical processes, potentially compromising the future carbon sequestration capacity of forest ecosystems. While process-based ecosystem models are essential tools for estimating carbon-water cycling, their ability to simulate drought effects is limited. Using multi-year flux data from eddy covariance sites, this project will: (i) identify patterns and drivers, like drought timing and severity, that affect WUE dynamics, (ii) evaluate the Biome-BGCMuSo (https://nimbus.elte.hu/bbgc/) model's simulation of carbon and water fluxes, and (iii) improve model accuracy for drought effects on WUE. The proposal also aims to project WUE dynamics under climate change scenarios and attribute changes to climatic drivers. The findings will contribute to the development of more accurate models to project forest carbon sequestration under climate change.
Research Objectives for the PhD
The Ph.D. candidate will learn how to operate the process-based biochemical model Biome-BGCMuSo and get involved in the European forest modeling community. The objective of the study is to explore and quantify how historical and future drought events alter ecosystem-level water-use efficiency (WUE) using eddy covariance observations and the process-based model at different European forest sites.
The candidate will be involved in the CROSS-CASCADE COST Action (CA24163, https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA24163/), co-chaired by the supervisor, which provides extensive networking opportunities, short-term research stays and supports future career development. The modeling expertise acquired during the position will be applicable to a wide range of other process-based modeling frameworks in the future.
Core responsibilities
- Assess the model’s behavior under drought conditions, quantify major sources of uncertainty, and contribute to develop targeted model refinements.
- Uncover new insights into how water-use efficiency responds to environmental change and climatic stressors
- Identify key drivers shaping future water-use efficiency (WUE), including the effects of drought timing, severity, and compound events
- Contribute to scientific publications and international collaborations
Supervision and Research Environment
The PhD will be supervised by Laura Dobor, Ph.D., an expert in ecosystem modelling and climate change impacts, PI of the abovementioned GACR project. She has been working with process-based ecosystem models for more than 10 years, including the individual-based forest model iLand and Biome-BGCMuSo model. She was involved in several COST Actions supporting networking and knowledge sharing across Europe including the organization of interdisciplinary summer schools.
The candidate will join a dynamic international research group with active collaborations across Europe, including ETH Zürich, PIK Potsdam, Technical University of Munich, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (BBGCMuSo development team), Croatian Forest Research Institute, ICOS (https://www.icos-cp.eu) and FLUXNET (https://fluxnet.org/) communities, partners from COST Actions PROCLIAS (https://proclias.eu/), CROSS-CASCADE (https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA24163/) and the ISIMIP community (https://www.isimip.org/).
The Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU) is one of the leading universities in Central Europe, specializing in life sciences, environmental studies, and sustainable development. With over 18,000 students and a strong international community, CZU is a dynamic and modern institution committed to excellence in research, innovation, and education. CZU offers excellent computational facilities, data infrastructure, and a supportive academic environment with strong experience in hosting international PhD students.
Required Qualifications
- Master’s degree (or equivalent) in ecology, environmental sciences, forestry, meteorology, geography, hydrology, ecological modelling, climate sciences, or a related field
- Strong interest in ecosystem processes, carbon and water cycles, climate change, and/or forest ecology
- Programming experience in R
- Excellent spoken and written English language skills
- Ability to develop a modeling mindset and approach complex systems systematically
Preferred / Advantageous Skills
- Experience with ecosystem modeling, land surface models, or process-based models
- Familiarity with eddy covariance data, or time-series analysis
- Experience with large datasets and background in statistics
What We Offer
- Full 4-year PhD funding
- Additional funding for conference travel, research stays, training, and workshops.
- Opportunity to work in a supportive and outstanding international research environment offering strong long-term career development prospects
- Performance-oriented salary policy
- Support for publication in leading international journals
How to Apply
The applicant must submit the following essential documents via electronic application at https://is.czu.cz/prihlaska/:
- Curriculum vitae
- Scan of the master's degree diploma. Applicants who have not received a diploma will upload a scan of the study result overview or a certificate of study
- Scientific intent: a document (two A4 pages max.) in which the applicant specifies the field of scientific intent that they would like to pursue in their dissertation in the following structure: (I) expected title of dissertation thesis, (II) topicality of the researched issue, (III) planned methodological procedures, (IV) objectives of the dissertation thesis and the PhD studies, and (V) expected results.
Information about the admission procedure: https://www.fld.czu.cz/en/r-9415-science-research/r-9538-doctoral-study
Please address any further questions about the position before you apply to Laura Dobor, dobor@fld.czu.cz