University of Amsterdam | PhD in Modelling Offshore Windfarm Impacts on Marine Bird Populations

About the position

As offshore wind farms rapidly expand in the North Sea, understanding and mitigating their ecological impact on marine ecosystems is essential. The North Sea POWER project tackles this challenge by reducing key knowledge gaps on underwater noise, biomass and water flows, and wildlife disturbance (seabirds and bats), supporting a sustainable green energy transition. The project is funded through the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate.

Led by Wageningen University & Research, North Sea POWER is a transdisciplinary consortium of universities, societal stakeholders, conservation organizations, and energy sector partners. This PhD position is one of twelve PhD and postdoc roles in the consortium. You will be based at IBED (University of Amsterdam), studying offshore wind disturbances and marine bird population dynamics in close collaboration with Wageningen Marine Research (WMR), and working in a team with shared meetings and training.

The aim of the PhD project is to explore potential consequences of offshore wind farms (OWFs) on marine bird populations developing and analyzing models that are capable of accounting for the cumulating effects of OWFs, such as ecosystem changes, displacement of marine birds from their habitats and/or collisions of marine birds with turbines, over the full life history. The population models will be based on individual level energetics over the full annual cycle and life history (from egg to adult) for two seabird species (northern gannet and common guillemot). OWF impacts on energetic costs, feeding opportunities, mortality, and reproduction will be mechanistically integrated, while accounting for species and colony specific exposure.

All about this vacancy

What are you going to do?

Your PhD project will investigate how offshore wind farms affect marine bird populations, focusing on two sensitive seabird species: northern gannet and common guillemot.

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Develop mechanistic population models based on individual energetics and covering the full annual cycle and life history (egg to adult).
• Integrate sublethal effects (displacement, ecosystem change) and lethal effects (collisions) to assess individual and population-level outcomes.
• Account for species- and colony-specific exposure to offshore wind farms over space and time.
• Use physiologically structured population models (PSPMs) to link feeding, energetic costs, growth, mortality, and environmental conditions.

The work will contribute directly to improving Dutch assessments of offshore wind impacts on marine birds and will involve close collaboration with a project postdoc, stakeholders, and international research groups through co-creation and information exchange.

Your profile

Your experience and profile:

• MSc degree in ecology, preferably with specialization in theoretical ecology or theoretical biology, or with strong quantitative skills and experience in population or foodweb dynamic modelling,
• Affinity with marine biology and/or seabird ecology,
• Interest in developing scientific knowledge with societal relevance,
• Good computational skills,
• Willingness to work in a multidisciplinary environment and engage in stakeholder information exchange meetings,
• Experience with bifurcation analysis and bioenergetic models will be considered an advantage.

Application

If you feel the profile fits you, and you are interested in the job, we look forward to receiving your application. You can apply online via the ‘Apply’-button on the vacancy’s webpage. We accept applications until and including 30 September 2026.

Applications should include the following information (all files besides your cv should be submitted in one single pdf file):

• a detailed CV including the months (not just years) when referring to your education and work experience and a list of publications;
• a personally written letter of motivation (not AI generated), of maximally two A4s length, including a description of research interests;
• the names and email addresses of two references who can provide letters of recommendation.

Only complete applications received within the response period via the link below will be considered.

A knowledge security check can be part of the selection procedure.(for details: national knowledge security guidelines)

The interviews will be held on the 30th of October with a possible second round on the 19th of November. We will invite potential candidates for interviews within 4 weeks after the closing date.

Do you have any questions, or do you require additional information? Please contact: Dr. Floor Soudijn, Senior Researcher Wageningen Marine Research, floor.soudijn@wur.nl

Application and more details: https://werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies/phd-in-modelling-offshore-windfarm-impacts-on-marine-bird-populations-netherlands-15434