For the project MOUNTLAND (http://www.cces.ethz.ch/projects/sulu/MOUNTLAND
) and its module on impact of land use and climate change on pasture-
woodland ecosystems, we are looking for a
Ph.D. student in plant and soil ecology
who will undertake the specific task “Fine-scale monitoring and
manipulative field experiments”. The work place will be at our
Laboratory ECOS in Lausanne.
You will set up two manipulative field experiments, one with soil
transplantation down an altitudinal gradient and another with active
soil warming at high elevation in the Jura Mountains. You will carry
out precise vegetation relevés, measure primary production and soil
functioning (respiration, litter decomposition), and do laboratory
analyses (soil nutrients, dissolved and inorganic C and N, microbial C
and N, plant N and P). Microbial diversity will also be investigated.
You will be affiliated to the Doctoral Program Environment at the EPFL
Doctoral School (http://phd.epfl.ch/page55510.html) and start your
work in early 2009.
Your qualifications: M.Sc. degree in biology or environmental
engineering, preferably with a thesis topic in ecology of terrestrial
ecosystems. Good English communication and writing skills are
required. Practical experience in plant ecology, functional ecology,
statistical analysis, vegetation and soil analysis will be of
advantage. You work cooperatively in an interdisciplinary team effort
and wish to take initiatives and go at work with ambition.
Interested? Please send your complete application, including a
motivation letter and a CV with photo, brief description of M.Sc.
thesis work as well as a list of publications, to Prof. A. Buttler,
EPFL, Ecological Systems Laboratory ECOS, Station 2, CH-1015 Lausanne
(Switzerland). Contact can be made at [email protected], with
the mention PhD-Mountland.
EPFL is, together with ETHZ, one of the two federal institutes of
technology in Switzerland (http://www.epfl.ch/index.en.html).These
academic institutions have three missions: education, research and
technology transfer at the highest international level. Associated
with several specialised research institutes, the two EPFs form the
EPF Domain, which is directly dependent on the Federal Department of
Home Affairs.
The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
WSL is part of the EPF Domain. Approximately 500 people work on topics
related to the sustainable use and protection of the environment and
on an integrated approach to handling natural hazards.
The Ecological Systems Laboratory ECOS (http://ecos.epfl.ch/) meets in
Lausanne a multidisciplinary team of scientists attached to either
EPFL or WSL with a focus on community and restoration ecology.
