PostDoc position: Acoustic possibilities for Southern Ocean management dilemmas (HIPP26 #4) – Deadline 24 August 2025

Antarctica is often called the world’s last great wilderness, surrounded by a so-called ‘pristine’ ocean that harbours a highly diverse fauna of invertebrates, fish, birds, and mammals. This Southern Ocean covers nearly 10% of the world’s total ocean space. It is a habitat for over 10,000 known marine species. Politically, it is special in that the majority of the space represents Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ). This means that much of the Southern Ocean is, theoretically, open to all nations and has no national-level governance. The region is currently governed through the international Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), with the Southern Ocean under the remit of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). Today, Antarctica and its surrounding waters are experiencing an increasing intensity of commercial, scientific, and political developments. The Southern Ocean is no longer a remote region (if it ever was). Scientists, fishers, and tourists travel to Antarctica and its surrounding waters to explore it, and also, in some cases, to exploit it.

At the same time, the Southern Ocean, which plays a key role in regulating our climate through ocean currents, sea ice, and its ability to absorb heat and CO2 from the atmosphere, is undergoing climate-related changes. It is not beyond the reach of human-induced changes to our planet. In recent decades, environmental changes such as rising atmospheric and oceanic temperatures, reduced sea ice extent, ice shelf thinning, glacier retreat, and increasing ocean acidification have been observed. Record values have been reported, such as in February 2023, when the lowest sea ice extent since satellite observations began in 1979 was recorded at just 2.01 million km. These environmental changes are having profound biological effects, including changes in primary production, community composition, and poleward shifts of species. Species that are endemic to the high southern latitudes and specially adapted to cold conditions are particularly vulnerable, as their habitats with optimal environmental conditions become increasingly scarce. All in all, these ongoing changes highlight the urgent need to rethink the management of this unique region, ensuring that it remains resilient in the face of both human pressures and climate change.

We invite applications for four positions, under the umbrella topic “The dilemma of the Southern Ocean: Ecosystems, sustainability and competing interests at the edge of the world” covering natural and social science perspectives, that will cohere around the ‘dilemma’ facing the Southern Ocean: how competing interests impact its governance, but also drive the need for greater science to understand its changes.

Postdocs in the cohort will undertake independent projects in collaboration with a Principal Investigator (PI) and relevant staff, while also meeting as a unit to work together on joint goals related to the overarching research topic. The Southern Ocean focus is well supported by a recent Antarctic Strategy at the Alfred Wegener Institute and its long-term investment in polar science, as well as its engagement in providing the best available science to policymakers in CCAMLR.

The HIPP (HIFMB Integrative Postdoc Pool) is also designed to allow networking between (marine) institutions. We therefore offer the possibility for candidates to foster external relationships, or in consultation, to bring in additional advisors from institutions outside of HIFMB. HIFMB continues to strive for transformation and to bridge the science-policy interface. Therefore, experience or interest in transfer activities is a plus.

Antarctic tourism is booming (more than 104,000 tourists visited Antarctica 2022–2023 season, over 40 percent more compared to the 2019–2020 pre-pandemic season, ca 125,000 tourists visited in the 2023/24 season), raising concerns on the impact of tourist landings, in terms of damage, diseases and introduction of alien species, but also in terms of the impact of the increased presence of ships in the region. Moreover, tourist fleet shipping routes, destinations, and vessel movement strategies are laid out to include encounters with Antarctic wildlife, as these often form a crucial part of the Antarctic tourist experience. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) is an organization of virtually all the commercial tour operators to the Antarctic. IAATO has established guidelines for tourist landings on the Antarctic mainland and ships encountering marine life in the ocean. But still, IAATO is self-regulatory, and adherence to these guidelines is voluntary. Currently, there are no boundaries to Antarctic tourism. Antarctic waters form crucial habitats for many marine mammal species, some of which undertake long-distance migrations to exploit Antarctic prey patches, synchronizing their arrival with conspecifics to optimize collective foraging strategies. Other species rely on ice-covered Antarctic waters for breeding, thereby timing the rearing of young to the availability of specific sea-ice habitats as a birthing and lactating platform. The success of these strategies critically relies on the timing of behavior to match the narrow summer season window during which the environmental conditions meet the critical seasonal- and species-specific habitat requirements for foraging and breeding. This, along with the vital role that underwater sound plays for these species in coordinating behavior and navigating dark and under-ice habitats, reveals the enormous impact potential of increased human presence in Antarctic waters. Particularly given the crucial temporal overlap in habitat function and usage during the narrow summer season window, with the timing of increased human presence in the area.

This project focuses on mapping spatio-temporal overlaps in the presence of both human and marine mammal activities. By using sighting data and ship positional data, as well as passive acoustic recordings, the project will provide an overview of how hotspots in human and marine mammal presence are distributed in affected areas. Acoustic ship models will furthermore help to understand and gauge the acoustic footprint of ships in various types of Antarctic habitats as well as their cumulative impact on seasonal soundscapes and their cumulative impact on the local underwater noise budgets of human hotspots. In addition, the project seeks to place human presence in the broader context of the drastic effects of climate-induced changes and address questions related to improving management, such as:

• How can vulnerable areas best be monitored? Can local noise budgets be accounted? What are the potential designs of effective monitoring setups?
• Can operators and tourists be sensitized to the impact of their presence, and how can knowledge contribute to modes of management and self-management?
• What measures may improve the sustainability of Antarctic tourism, if at all?

You’ll be working in the Southern Ocean Conservation and Governance Group. The post offers membership to the HIPP cohort and wider HIFMB postgraduate community and the candidate will liaise between the Working Groups relevant to the position, for example Ocean Acoustics and/or Marine Governance.

As a Helmholtz Institute, the HIFMB contributes to one of the Helmholtz Research Programs (currently ‘Changing Earth – Sustaining our Future’) as part of a particular topic (6, Marine and Polar Life). The cohort work will directly contribute to the scope and challenges of topic 6 by researching how marine ecosystems will adapt and respond to human impacts (e.g., fishing, tourism), and by assessing options to remedy and mitigate human impacts.

Within topic 6, this cohort work attends especially to subtopic 6.1, which is central to the HIFMB mission on “Future Ecosystem Functionality,” and subtopic 6.4, “Use and Misuse of the Ocean.” Within subtopic 6.1, it aims to work towards the central goal of understanding biodiversity change and its human impacts and effects, while investigating new and evaluating existing concepts for marine conservation and marine governance. Additionally, the emission of anthropogenic noise places significant additional pressure on the Antarctic ecosystem. Work of the cohort contributes towards deliverables aimed at improved projection capabilities of future marine biodiversity and its role in maintaining key ecosystem functions such as productivity and strategies for sustainable management of selected marine ecosystems.

• A PhD in (bio)acoustics, spatial ecology, marine environmental science, or a related subject
• Experienced in acoustic propagation modelling, signal processing, and data mining
• A strong background in programming, statistical analysis, and spatial modelling and mapping
• Highly motivated to work on the subject and eager to work in an interdisciplinary marine research context
• Ability to think out of the box
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines
• Very good English knowledge (approximately equivalent to CEFR level C1)

For any questions you may have, you are very welcome to get in touch with Dr Ilse van Opzeeland (Ilse.van.Opzeeland@awi.de; +49(471)4831-1169). If you have any questions about the application procedure, please feel free to contact Ruth Krause (ruth.krause@hifmb.de).This is a full-time position, limited to 3 years. It is also suitable for part-time employment. The salary will be paid in accordance with the Collective Agreement for the Public Service of the Federation (Tarifvertrag des öffentlichen Dienstes, TVöD Bund), up to salary level 13. The place of employment will be Oldenburg.

All postdocs will register with AWI’s postdoc office PROCEED and thus gain access to a set of tailor-made career development tools.

The AWI is characterized by

• our scientific success – excellent research
• collaboration and cooperation – intra-institute, national and international, interdisciplinary
• opportunities to develop – on the job and towards other positions
• an international environment – everyday contact with people from all over the world
• flexible working hours
• health promotion and company fitness with Hansefit and Wellhub
• support services and a culture of reconciling work and family
• occupational pension provision (VBL)

AWI values diversity and actively promotes gender parity, as well as an open, inclusive environment that provides equal opportunities. We are convinced that diverse teams and a variety of perspectives enrich our work and our daily collaboration. In a continuous process of learning and reflection, we aim to ensure that all our employees can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging. We welcome applications from qualified people regardless of binary and non-binary genders, race and nationality, ethnic and social background, religion, age, physical abilities, neurodivergence, sexual orientation, and other identities.

Applicants with disabilities will be given preference when equal qualifications are present.

AWI fosters work-family compatibility in various ways and has received several awards as a result of this commitment. And as a new international member of our team, you can be sure that we will help you settle in. Our Family Office and International Office will be glad to support you, even before you start at AWI.

We look forward to your application!
Please submit your application by August 24th, 2025 exclusively online.
Interviews are planned for the mid until end of September, 2025, in Oldenburg or online.

Employment for this post is subject to the provisions of the German Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz – WissZeitVG). According to WissZeitVG § 2.1, researchers may in general be employed in Germany on fixed-term contracts for a maximum of twelve years before and after their doctorate. Previous academic fixed-term employment in Germany counts, in principle, towards this maximum limit, while academic positions abroad usually do not.

Applicants are required to submit an extended cover letter (max. 2 pages) describing their fit to the position and criteria, and complete the template CV provided (please do not submit a CV not in this format).

If you are applying from abroad and are interested in academic positions in Germany, it may generally be helpful to check and possibly have your degrees recognized in advance via the ANABIN database.

Reference number: 25/66/G/HIPP-b