[Aqualist] PhD project in palaeohydrology in South America

[Paul Hesse]

We seek expressions of interest in a PhD project based at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, investigating the late Quaternary palaeohydrology of the Atuel/Diamante river system in Argentina.

The PhD forms part of an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant which will fund fieldwork and analytical costs.  The scholarship will cover tuition fees (for international students outside Australia and New Zealand) and a stipend (living costs) of AUD$28,000 per year, tax free, for three years.

The plain language project summary is:
This project aims to investigate how large rivers are affected by changing atmospheric temperature. Large inland rivers are the main source of water supporting ecological functions, economies and societies. This project will quantify the size and age of abandoned river channels in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) of southeast Australia and the Atuel/Diamante basin of Argentina. We will use this to reconstruct a history of changes in river discharge and relate this to climate. Novel climate and hydrological modelling will then be used to simulate the impact of temperature changes on catchment runoff and river discharge. Such information is vital for decision-making, planning and water resource allocation in the MDB and elsewhere.

The project will be supervised by A/Prof Paul Hesse (Macquarie University), Prof Alfonsina Tripaldi (CONICET/U Buenos Aires) and Prof Adriana Mehl (CONICET/UN La Pampa).

The successful applicant will have completed a research Masters degree in geomorphology, geology or related areas.  The student will be trained in OSL dating and experience in that technique may be an advantage.  The student must be able to commence study in early 2022.

For further information or to express your interest, please email, with your CV:
Paul Hesse -  paul.hesse at mq.edu.au
Alfonsina Tripaldi – alfotripaldi at gmail.com
Adriana Mehl – adrianamehl at gmail.com


Paul Hesse
BSc (Hons), PhD, SFHEA
Associate Professor in Quaternary Science and Geomorphology

(ph) +61 2 9850 8384 (office); 9850 7481 (lab) (f) +61 2 9850 8420 (e) paul.hesse at mq.edu.au<mailto:paul.hesse at mq.edu.au>

Postal Address:
School of Natural Sciences
Macquarie University, Sydney,
New South Wales 2109, Australia

Office Location: Room 430, Level 4, Building E7A, 12 Wally's Walk, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney

New papers:
Shumack, S., Fisher, A., Hesse, P.P., 2021. Refining medium resolution fractional cover for arid Australia to detect vegetation dynamics and wind erosion susceptibility on longitudinal dunes. Remote Sensing of Environment 265, 112647 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112647.


Turner, S., Handley, H., Hesse, P., Schaefer, B., Dosseto, A., 2021. The age of dust - a new hydrological indicator in arid environments? Geology 49 https://doi.org/10.1130/G48592.1.


Thomas, D.S.G., Hesse, P.P., 2021. Dune Paleoenvironments, in: Lancaster, N. (Ed.), Treatise on Geomorphology, Elsevier.