The research will be focused on the analyses of the impacts of the climate change on permafrost environments and the related ecosystems in polar areas and alpine mountains. In these areas permafrost is thawing almost everywhere ,changing deeply the landscape and triggering surface instability that interacts with the evolution of the ecosystems and with the CO2 and CH4 fluxes. The Research will be focused on these complex and dynamic relationships in Alaska where Insubria opened in 2022 his international Branch and, for comparison in the Italian Alps where Insubria had traditional study sites in Upper Valtellina. This comparison will be important because both the areas are suffering the more intense warming in the planet

The candidate should have basic knowledge on the climate change, on the climate change impacts on the Cryosphere and on the ecosystems of periglacial environment. Basic knowledge on GIS and statistical analyses are also welcome. The candidates should be ready to work in a dynamic, international context with an important field work activity in polar environment.

This PhD is within the frame of Climate Change Research Center (CCRC) of Insubria Un. where the work will be in a multidisciplinar team including the CRyosphere Lab (resp. M. Guglielmin) with a Researcher (S. Ponti, expert in remote sensing), one Post Doc (Alessandro Longhi, expert in soils) and other 4 PhD. This group interacts with the Botany and Climate Change Lab (Resp. Nicoletta Cannone). The team is working in cooperation of many national and international Instititution (i.e British Antarctic Survey, Trieste University).