2 PhD/Early Stage Researchers (ESR) positions in Ecohydraulics are available at Politecnico di Torino, within the European Training Network RIBES “River flow regulation, fish BEhaviour and Status”, funded by the European Commission under the EU Horizon 2020 programme Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network (Grant no. 860800), aimed at finding innovative solutions for freshwater fish protection and river continuity restoration in anthropogenically altered rivers.
Each position (ESR08, ESR14) foresees a 36 months full-time research fellowship contract and an highly competitive salary.
The 2 ESRs will be enrolled in the Politecnico di Torino Doctoral School in Civil and Environmental Engineering and will carry out their research projects within a European consortium (Italy, Sweden, Germany, UK, Estonia and Belgium) of universities, research institutions and companies in an excellent scientific environment with state-of-the-art technologies, with innovative complementary training activities and attractive travel, laboratory and research opportunities.
ESR08 – SWIMMING EFFICIENCY OF SMALL-SIZED MIGRATORY FISH SPECIES: THE ROLE OF TURBULENCE AND WATER TEMPERATURE: the project will focus on the assessment of swimming performance of migratory fish species. In particular, the role of flow velocity, turbulence, and water temperature will be investigated. Specific field-based experiments will be designed and carried out thanks to a four-wheel-drive van with a fully equipped moving laboratory (namely MovingLab). Swimming performance tests will be carried out directly in the field using an innovative portable flume that allows for optimally controlled conditions while running experiments. Effects of water temperature and turbulence on small-sized fish species swimming performance will be therefore identified and isolated. Expected results will include: (1) experimental protocol and performance of systematic studies on small-sized migratory fish species; (2) scaling relations quantifying the “swimmability” of a flow at different temperature and turbulence levels.
ESR14 – INNOVATIVE CRITERIA FOR ENHANCING TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS FOR FISH PASSAGE AT HYDROPOWER PLANTS: the project will focus on the identification of metrics and threshold values to be used as a reference for designing, by means of CFD tools, improved technical solutions aimed at allowing minimized fish stress during passage across hydropower dams. The current scientific knowledge will be reviewed in order to identify proper hydrodynamics and turbulence metrics/threshold values related to successful fish passage along fishways and to select adequate CFD tools for designing efficient devices using the identified metrics as a reference. The potential use of biomarkers to assess fish stress due to turbulence will be investigated as a possible additional metric for the above purpose. Specific field-based experiments will be designed and carried out in close cooperation with ESR08, thanks to a four-wheel-drive van with a fully equipped moving laboratory (namely MovingLab): specific tests will be carried out directly in the field using an innovative portable flume that allows for optimally controlled conditions while running experiments on small-sized migratory fish species.
