PhD Position, Impact of land use on multifunctional agro-ecosystems (UFZ, Leipzig)

The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) with its 1,100 employees has gained an excellent reputation as an international competence centre for environmental sciences. We are part of the largest scientific organisation in Germany, the Helmholtz association. Our mission: Our research seeks to find a balance between social development and the long-term protection of our natural resources.

In a framework of 10 Integrated Projects (IPs) scientists address key environmental challenges following a solution-oriented approach. In order to strengthen its interdisciplinary work, UFZ is currently offering 12 PhD positions. One position will be dedicated to the following subject:

PhD position (m/f)
Subject: Impact of land use on multifunctional agro-ecosystems
Project start: 1st July 2017, working time 50% (19,5 h/week); limited for three years
Your tasks:

Within an interdisciplinary research team, we are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate to identify key drivers of soil functional aspects and further, how these soil functions are connected to soil microbial community-driven ecosystem functions and in turn to plant, herbivore, pollinator and predator diversity and functional structure in the context of agricultural land use. In particular the candidate will:

Develop a predictive model of soil functional types based on local site conditions and agricultural land use.
Assess the relative importance of agricultural land use for key ecosystem compartments, their functioning and potential of service provision.
Disentangle direct and indirect impacts of land use on soil processes and properties in connection to species co-occurrence, community assembly and the consequent taxonomic and functional structure of soil microbiota, plants, pollinators, herbivores and birds.

Please find more information: https://goo.gl/FD57kE

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Von:

Martin Schröder
martin.schroeder@ufz.de
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH - UFZ
Leipzig

Ansprechpartner: Martin Schröder