Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Exeter

The University of Exeter seeks a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the NERC-funded Ocean Carbon Soundscapes project, starting December 1, 2026. This full-time role focuses on quantifying ocean carbon fluxes using acoustic methods and AI to resolve sub-daily burst events often missed by traditional sediment traps. The successful candidate will analyze acoustic backscatter data, collaborate with partners like the British Antarctic Survey, and lead publications on carbon storage variability.

Applicants require a PhD in physical or biogeochemical oceanography, proficiency in Python or Matlab, and experience with large datasets or acoustic data. While AI expertise is not mandatory, strong quantitative skills and background in ocean dynamics or remote sensing are essential. The position offers a salary from £44,352 and opportunities for professional development within a supportive, interdisciplinary team dedicated to understanding marine carbon cycles.

Project Outline:

Ocean Carbon Soundscapes addresses one of the major challenges in marine science today: improving our ability to quantify and understand the ocean carbon sink. The ocean buffers climate change by absorbing significant amounts of atmospheric carbon. Marine life is a fundamental driver of this uptake: plants in the surface ocean convert carbon into organic matter through photosynthesis. This organic carbon eventually reaches deep ocean sediments as sinking dead plant and animal material, or as faecal pellets—collectively known as “marine snow.” Once deposited, it can remain stored for hundreds to thousands of years. However, the amount of carbon sequestered as marine snow—and, crucially, its variability across space and time—is poorly understood. This knowledge gap stems from limited observations and shortcomings in measurement techniques.

The primary method for measuring sinking organic carbon in the ocean is sediment traps, which typically collect samples averaged over a month. However, recent studies indicate that ocean carbon fluxes are dominated by short-lived, high-magnitude burst events that sediment traps fail to resolve. These bursts may also be vital for deep-sea communities. Without capturing these sub-daily, critical burst events, environmental drivers and ecological impacts of ocean carbon flux cannot be reliably assessed, limiting our ability to predict future carbon export. OCS will address this challenge.

Our key aims are:

• Collate a global legacy data bank of coincident acoustic backscatter and sediment trap data, and use state-of-the-art AI to identify robust relationships that link them;
• Apply these relationships to produce high-resolution (sub-daily) carbon flux time series and investigate burst events;
• Use advanced AI to explore the use of environmental drivers to strengthen backscatter-carbon flux relationships and bypass the need for coincident sediment-trap measurements;
• Disseminate results, tools, and datasets to end-users.

The successful applicant will join a team of ocean and artificial intelligence scientists and take on the role of analysing new acoustic-based ocean carbon flux datasets to understand what might be driving sub-daily changes in sinking carbon. They will lead a publication on this work. They will also be responsible for helping to collate the environmental datasets required for analysis, as well as supporting the AI-based analysis, although this aspect will be led by others in the team. They will play a major part in contributing to a Phase-Two funding proposal.

The successful applicant will be able to develop research objectives, projects and proposals; identify sources of research funding and contribute to the process of securing funds and make presentations at conferences and other events. Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study. The successful applicant will be a nationally recognised authority in oceanography or acoustics and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop research programmes and methodologies. The successful applicant will also be able to work collaboratively, supervise the work of others and act as team leader as required.

We are looking for someone who is highly motivated, creative, independent and with the ambition to learn new skills and knowledge. You will work with a highly supportive team, with members from University of Exeter, the British Antarctic Survey and the National Oceanography Center Southampton. As such, you will actively engage with the wider team and be open to sharing knowledge with others.