Postdoc: Soil Security Lead for Cotton Farming Systems

University of Sydney; Narrabri; On-site; AUD 133,000 - 157,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Sydney invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based in Narrabri, NSW, to contribute to the Cotton Research and Development Corporation partnership and to develop a regionally relevant Soil Security framework for cotton farming systems.

You will work under the Soils Partnership Project Lead and a multidisciplinary team, applying quantitative soil assessment, GIS, and field-based methods to deliver practical on-farm change and knowledge exchange with stakeholders.

Qualifications

• PhD awarded before or on commencement in soil science or closely related discipline.
• Experience in quantitative soil assessment and soil-landscape analysis.
• Experience designing soil field-sampling programs and handling lab data.
• Strong skills with GIS, spatial statistics, and geospatial methods.
• Ability to reproduce data analysis in R, Python or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to regional baseline assessment using pedogenons, genosoils and phenosoils as the organising framework.
• Develop and manage GIS layers and mapping products for soil-security work.
• Identify soil functions, ecosystem services and threats relevant to cotton systems.
• Design and coordinate multi-site soil-sampling programs and field logistics.
• Coordinate laboratory characterisation of soil properties and QA/QC procedures.
• Engage with growers, consultants and researchers to develop management responses and monitoring approaches.
• Collaborate with project partners through workshops, field days and knowledge-exchange activities.
• Contribute to supervision and mentoring of students and occasional teaching where allocated.

Skills

GIS

Spatial statistics

Digital soil mapping

Geostatistics

R

Python

Data management

Education

PhD in soil science or closely related field

Job description

The University of Sydney invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based in Narrabri, NSW, to contribute to the Cotton Research and Development Corporation partnership and to develop a regionally relevant Soil Security framework for cotton farming systems.

You will work under the Soils Partnership Project Lead and a multidisciplinary team, applying quantitative soil assessment, GIS, and field-based methods to deliver practical on-farm change and knowledge exchange with stakeholders.