Category: job opportunities

Deadline: April 1, 2024

We are seeking a highly qualified, ambitious, and motivated PhD candidate for a fully-funded 4 year project focusing on genomics of Arctic alien plants. The project will focus on target alien plant species and seek to uncover their genomic basis of adaptation to the Arctic environment and how it relates to their invasiveness.

A warming climate, changes in soil properties, and rising human activity in the Arctic increase the probability of introduction and establishment of alien plant species. In high-Arctic Svalbard and other Arctic regions, the wintercress (Barbarea vulgaris) is an established and naturalised alien species. Hypotheses for its success include multiple introductions from different genetic sources, enemy release advantage related to plant defense compounds, and shifts in adaptive traits. The PhD project will develop genomic datasets, making use of field collections and herbarium resources, and develop experimental evidence to examine links between the genomic basis of successful establishment and potential invasiveness in the high-Arctic. The wintercress will be a primary focus of the project, but complementary research on parallel systems may be developed. The project will add an important evolutionary component to ongoing interdisciplinary research on Arctic greening.

The work will consist of arctic field work, herbarium work, green house experimental work, DNA lab and bioinformatics in an international interdisciplinary team. More specifically, the successful candidate will:

• Manage and supervise third-party services to achieve high-quality reference genomes suitable for population genomic analyses
• Assemble a spatial and temporal sampling of herbarium and fresh specimens
• Produce NGS libraries and sequencing data using clean-lab facilities and third-party services
• Analyse sequencing data combined with available genomic resources and complementary experimental evidence to unravel the evolutionary history of parallel Arctic invasions, including the phylogeography of established populations, the genetic architecture of adaptation to the Arctic environment, and the role of different chemotypes in the context of the enemy release hypothesis
• Analyse temporal data to assess turnover of allele frequencies following introduction and bottlenecks
• Design and perform common garden experiments to test the adaptive role of shifts in enemy pressure, breeding system and life-history traits underlying invasiveness under current and future climate
• Disseminate results in scientific literature, to relevant stakeholders and the public

The candidate will use the NTNU University Museum’s herbarium, genomics laboratory facilities and computational resources, and the work will be closely associated with a project on Arctic greening (https://geobiology.ethz.ch/research/arctic-greening.html) based at ETH Zürich. The work will also be part of the Nordic Borealization Network (NordBorN) that seeks to understand the processes, drivers, and consequences of changes in the species composition of tundra ecosystems.

Feel free to reach out with any enquires: kristine.b.westergaard@ntnu.no.

Full details and link to apply here: https://www.jobbnorge.no/ledige-stillinger/stilling/255087

Deadline: April 15, 2024

Are you looking for an exciting PhD position in remote sensing? This might be your opportunity to join the NordBorN team at the University of Eastern Finland!

The UEF NordBorN team coordinated by Prof Timo Kumpula is looking for a highly motivated and skilled PhD researcher. The successful PhD applicant will work with multiple scale (from drones to satellite) remote sensing of shrub encroachment processes and treeline dynamics in tundra ecosystems. The candidate is expected to have skills in remote sensing and machine learning. The position entails both office work and field work.

The UEF NordBorN team welcomes candidates with background in geography, ecology, environmental sciences, geoinformatics and computer sciences. The position will provide a unique opportunity to be part of a large, active international team and participate in project meetings in different countries over the course of the project.

The PhD researcher will be based at the Joensuu campus of the University of Eastern Finland, at the Department of Geography and Historical Studies, and will work closely with Timo Kumpula and Miguel Villoslada and other members of the Digital Geosciences research group.

The deadline for applications is April 15, 2024 and the position will start as soon as possible after May 15, 2024. The position has an initial duration of 20 months. The candidate will actively engage in funding acquisition with supervisors to ensure the full funding of PhD.

Applications should include:

• Cover letter that explains how your research interests and experience align with the position
• CV or resume, including relevant experience
• List of two professional references and their contact information

Applications should be submitted through the electronic system of the University of Eastern Finland.

Please do not hesitate to contact Prof. Timo Kumpula or Miguel Villoslada if you have any questions.

Deadline: December 8, 2023

We are looking for a highly motivated and skilled postdoctoral researcher to join the project The Nordic Borealization Network (NordBorN) funded by NordForsk’s University Cooperation call.

The Nordic Borealization Network (NordBorN) will create a collaboration platform across the Nordic countries to understand the implications of ongoing shifts in the forest-tundra biome boundary, that is, the borealization in Nordic terrestrial ecosystems. These shifts include the encroachment of woody species (treeline advance and shrub expansion), spread of non-native species, changes in the composition of biotic communities and in the trophic and functional structure of ecosystems, and changes in landscape structure and ecosystem processes. As such, borealization provides the scope for multidisciplinary work and highlights the need of a strong consortium with complementary expertise. NordBorN will bring together six Nordic universities and three associated partners who will jointly develop research funding applications and will create opportunities for mobility and graduate student co-supervision across Nordic universities.

The successful applicant will conduct their own research within the scope of the network while also facilitating collaborative research with a large international research team. Their role will be to identify additional opportunities for funding of joint NordBorN projects, assist in the preparation of grant applications and coordinate efforts across the consortium, and develop their own research interests, as project leaders. They will also build leadership expertise by being part of the management board of a large Nordic cooperation project. The position will provide a unique opportunity to be part of a large, active international team, participate in project meetings in different countries over the course of the project, opportunities for research visits with other partners and for student supervision in a multidisciplinary environment.

The postdoctoral researcher will be based at the Reykjavík campus of the Agricultural University of Iceland, and will work closely together with Isabel C Barrio and other members of the NordBorN consortium. The deadline for applications is December 8, 2023 and the position will start as soon as possible after January 1, 2024. The position has a duration of 28 months. Salaries are according to public sector wage agreements.

Applications are welcome from candidates with a PhD degree in ecology, environmental sciences or related fields. A strong academic background is essential, as the postdoctoral researcher should be able to translate the research needs and priorities of the network into the development of consortium activities, while consolidating themselves as experts in the field. Applicants should ideally have experience in working in an international research environment, successfully securing research funding, communicating scientific outputs to different audiences, and project management and coordination. Strong communication and interpersonal skills also are important because the person in this position will facilitate collaborative research within the network. Applicants should be able to work as part of an international, multidisciplinary team but also independently.

In your application you should include:

• Cover letter that explains how your research interests and experience align with the position
• CV or resume, including relevant experience
• List of two professional references and their contact information

Please do not hesitate to contact Isabel C Barrio (isabel@lbhi.is) if you have any questions.

Applications should be submitted through the online application system.