Postdoctoral Research Associate - Plant-Soil Interactions and Coastal Biogeochemistry

We need to produce HTML fragment with sections: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. Only include sections that have real specific content. We must not repeat job title. Must not include Job ID/requisition numbers as headings; can fold minor metadata into short p or drop. Remove boilerplate, navigation, legal, EEO, scam warning, duplicated lines, application instructions. Must preserve all substantive information. We need to parse the posting. Key content: Overview: Plant-Soil Interactions Group within ESD at ORNL seeks a postdoctoral researcher in Coastal Biogeochemistry. This researcher will use field observations and laboratory mesocosms to investigate how plant traits and soil properties confer resilience or vulnerability to disturbance in coastal wetlands. Research activities will evaluate how belowground plant traits and soil properties vary across inundation and salinity gradients in Gulf Coast wetlands. Potential areas of focus include belowground root traits, plant-microbe-soil interactions, physical and chemical soil properties, and organo-mineral associations. This candidate will directly support the Exploring Gulf Region Ecosystem Transitions (EGRET) project, an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration focused on disturbance-driven ecosystem transitions and their impacts across the U.S. Gulf Coast. EGRET employs an integrated model–experiment (ModEx) approach accelerated by artificial intelligence (AI) to advance predictive understanding of how plant–microbial–soil interactions vary across inundation and salinity gradients to shape ecological, hydrological, and geomorphological responses to abrupt disturbance. A cohort of postdoctoral researchers will be hired across multiple institutions to collaboratively support scientific advances guided by AI/ML, remote sensing, process-based modeling, field observations and experiments, and advanced analytical techniques. Major Duties/Responsibilities: list. Basic Qualifications: list. Preferred Qualifications: list. Special Requirements: includes PhD time limit, appointment length up to 24 months with potential for extension, letters of reference, etc. About ORNL: description of lab, benefits, etc. We need to map to sections. Section headings allowed: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. We need to decide which sections have content. - About the role: could contain overview description of role, project, etc. - Responsibilities: Major Duties/Responsibilities. - Requirements: maybe Basic Qualifications + Special Requirements? Or Requirements could be basic qualifications. - Qualifications: maybe Preferred Qualifications. - Skills: maybe specific skills like equipment usage, data analysis, etc. Could be derived from responsibilities and qualifications. - Benefits: ORNL offers competitive pay and benefits programs, list of benefits. - Pay: Not explicitly stated; no salary info. So we should NOT include Pay section because no specific content. - Schedule: Not explicitly stated; maybe flexible work hours mentioned? In ORNL benefits: flexible work hours. That could be schedule info. But we need specific content: "flexible work hours" is a benefit, but schedule section could be included if posting states schedule. It mentions flexible work hours as part of benefits. Might be considered schedule info. However guidelines: only include Pay/Schedule/Benefits sections if posting actually states them. The posting does mention flexible work hours under benefits. So we could include Schedule section with that detail? But it's more a benefit. Might be better to put under Benefits. Since we have Benefits section, we can include flexible work hours there. No separate Schedule needed. Thus we will include: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements (Basic Qualifications), Qualifications (Preferred Qualifications), Skills (maybe derived from responsibilities and qualifications), Benefits (ORNL benefits). No Pay, no Schedule. We must not invent or summarize away detail. Must preserve all substantive information. So we need to include all details from overview, responsibilities, basic qualifications, preferred qualifications, special requirements, ORNL description, benefits list. We must not include boilerplate like EEO, equal opportunity, scam warning, application instructions, etc. Also remove duplicated lines. We need to format using

for section headings,

• for any list of duties/requirements/benefits, and

  for prose. We need to ensure we don't repeat job title as heading. We need to output only HTML fragment. Let's craft. First, About the role: combine overview paragraph(s). Could be multiple paragraphs but we can put as

  with the overview text. We need to preserve all substantive information: mention Plant-Soil Interactions Group, ESD, ORNL, postdoctoral researcher in Coastal Biogeochemistry, field observations, lab mesocosms, investigate plant traits and soil properties resilience/vulnerability to disturbance in coastal wetlands, evaluate belowground plant traits and soil properties across inundation and salinity gradients in Gulf Coast wetlands, potential areas of focus: belowground root traits, plant-microbe-soil interactions, physical and chemical soil properties, organo-mineral associations. Support EGRET project, interdisciplinary multi-institutional collaboration, disturbance-driven ecosystem transitions, impacts across US Gulf Coast, EGRET uses integrated model-experiment (ModEx) approach accelerated by AI to advance predictive understanding of plant-microbial-soil interactions across inundation and salinity gradients shaping ecological, hydrological, geomorphological responses to abrupt disturbance. Cohort of postdoc researchers across multiple institutions to support scientific advances guided by AI/ML, remote sensing, process-based modeling, field observations and experiments, advanced analytical techniques. We can put that as a paragraph. Second, Responsibilities: list from Major Duties/Responsibilities: - Independently and collaboratively lead field campaigns to collect plant material, soil cores, and soil water from coastal wetlands. - Lead a laboratory mesocosm experiment evaluating plant-soil response to simulated disturbance, linking repeated high-throughput phenotyping at ORNL's Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory (APPL) with paired geochemical and microbial measurements. - Utilize laboratory equipment and software that may include a Picarro gas concentration analyzer (G2508), Rhizovision Explorer, Shimadzu TOC-L, ICP-MS/OES, and Aqualog for EEMS/UV-VIS. - Work closely with modelers and empiricists across multiple disciplines to address project objectives. - Present results within the research group and at national and international conferences, and publish manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. - Deliver ORNL’s mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service. We need to keep each as

• . Third, Requirements: Basic Qualifications: - A PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ecology, Biosciences, Botany, Geosciences, or a related field with a strong focus on plant-soil interactions and/or biogeochemical processes, completed within the last 5 years or expected to be completed soon. - A strong record of independent and productive research, as indicated by conference presentations and/or publications in peer-reviewed journals. - Ability to work independently and collaboratively as part of a large multidisciplinary team. - Proven ability to design and implement experiments, perform data analyses, and interpret experimental results. - Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills. Also Special Requirements: Applicants cannot have received their Ph.D. more than five years prior to the date of application and must complete all degree requirements before starting their appointment. The appointment length will be up to 24 months with the potential for extension. Initial appointments and extensions are subject to performance and availability of funding. Letters of Reference: Please submit three letters of reference when applying to this position. You may upload these directly to your application or have them sent to Postdocrecruitment@ornl.gov with the position title and number referenced in the subject line. Instructions to upload documents to your candidate profile: Login to your account via jobs.ornl.gov View Profile Under the My Documents section, select Add a Document For employment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a Real ID compliant form of identification will be required. Additionally, ORNL is subject to Department of Energy (DOE) access restrictions. All employees must also be able to obtain and maintain a federal Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card as mandated by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) and Department of Energy (DOE) Order 473.1A, which requires a favorable post-employment background investigation. To obtain this credential, new employees must successfully complete and pass a Federal Tier 1 background check investigation. This investigation includes a declaration of illegal drug activities, including use, supply, possession, or manufacture within the last year. This includes marijuana and cannabis derivatives, which are still considered illegal under federal law, regardless of state laws. For foreign national candidates: If you have not resided in the U.S. for three consecutive years, you are not eligible for the PIV credential and instead will need to obtain a favorable Local Site Specific Only (LSSO) risk determination to maintain employment. Once you meet the three-year residency requirement, you will be required to obtain a PIV credential to maintain employment. We need to decide if we include Special Requirements under Requirements or maybe as part of Requirements. The spec says we can have Requirements section for basic qualifications. Special requirements could be considered part of Requirements. We'll include them as list items under Requirements. But we must not include application instructions like "Login to your account via jobs.ornl.gov View Profile Under the My Documents section, select Add a Document". That's application instruction; we should remove. Also "Letters of Reference: Please submit three letters of reference when applying to this position." That's also application instruction; but it's also a requirement? It's a requirement to submit letters. Might be considered part of application instructions. The instruction says remove application instructions. So we should drop that. Also the instructions to upload documents etc. So we should remove those lines. We should keep the substantive special requirements: PhD time limit, appointment length up to 24 months with potential for extension, subject to performance/funding, need for Real ID compliant ID, need to obtain and maintain PIV card, background check, foreign national residency requirement. We need to preserve all substantive information; but we must remove application instructions. The letters of reference request is arguably a requirement but also an instruction. The guideline says remove application instructions. I'd err on side of removing that line. However, the requirement to submit three letters is substantive; but it's also an instruction. I'd keep it maybe as a requirement? The instruction says "remove cookie/navigation/legal/EEO/equal-opportunity/scam-warning boilerplate, duplicated lines, and application instructions." So letters of reference request is an application instruction. So remove. Thus Requirements list includes: - PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ecology, Biosciences, Botany, Geosciences, or related field with strong focus on plant-soil interactions and/or biogeochemical processes, completed within last 5 years or expected soon. - Strong record of independent and productive research (conference presentations and/or peer-reviewed publications). - Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a large multidisciplinary team. - Proven ability to design and implement experiments, perform data analyses, interpret results. - Excellent interpersonal, oral, written communication skills. - Must not have received PhD more than five years prior to application date; must complete degree before start. - Appointment length up to 24 months with potential for extension, subject to performance and funding. - Must have Real ID compliant identification. - Must obtain and maintain federal PIV card, requiring favorable Tier 1 background check (includes declaration of illegal drug activities). - For foreign nationals: if not resided in US for three consecutive years, need LSSO risk determination; after three-year residency, need PIV credential. We'll put these as
• . Fourth, Qualifications: Preferred Qualifications: - Demonstrated capabilities in evaluating physical and chemical properties of environmental samples including plants and soil. - Experience integrating phenotypic or imaging-based datasets (e.g., RGB, chlorophyll fluorescence, root imaging) with biogeochemical, microbial, or environmental sensor data. - Experience analyzing large datasets in reproducible formats (R, etc.) - Demonstrated interdisciplinary and systems-level approach to science. - Experience conducting field work independently or as part of a team. We'll list as
• . Fifth, Skills: Could be derived from responsibilities and qualifications: maybe list specific skills like field campaign leadership, mesocosm