A postdoctoral / research assistant position at Sorbonne Université, Paris is offered to perform climate niche modelling to determine the realized spatial distribution of vipers across the Palearctic region and identify the most threatened areas according to future climate change scenarios. The research will involve correlative species distribution modelling of 12 species of vipers as well as mechanistic modelling of the fundamental niche with a biophysical model already designed for ectotherms. The project is one component of the five-years long, collaborative research program DivClim funded by Agence Nationale de la Recherche to better understand thermal niche distribution and sensitivity to climate change of Paleartic vipers. The post-doc will work in close collaboration with Jean-François Le Galliard (coordinator of the postdoctoral project), Sylvain Pincebourde at CNRS IRBI (Tours, France), Fernando Martinez-Freiria at Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Olivier Lourdais at CNRS CEBC (coordinator of the DivClim project). The mechanistic approach will rely on data already acquired about biophysical traits of vipers such as their thermoregulation strategies, energy allocation rules and water balance mechanisms. It will also make use of microclimate data collected since 2026 across France and Spain. More information below !
