3-5 Post Doc and 3-5 PhD positions open at a new Nordic Centre of Excellence How to preserve the tundra in a warming climate (NCoE Tundra)
NCoE Tundra is a new Nordic Centre of Excellence during 2011-15, funded by NordForsk, under the scheme Top-level Research Initiative (TRI). Our scope is to study the interaction between the ecological phenomenon of top down impacts in food webs and climate-vegetation interactions, and to integrate this perspective with the man-managed reindeer husbandry and the Sámi culture dependent on it. Ultimately, we wish to learn how the top-down impact of reindeer can be optimally applied to the prevention of shrub encroachment and woodland expansion, and the resulting negative impacts of these processes on global climate and biodiversity. In the present project, we will approach the system of ecologic, climatologic, and socio-economic issues by means of an integrated, co-Nordic CoE project, gathering young specialists already working on different aspects of the above problem into an integrated Co-Nordic team. The project consists of Work Packages (listed below), each of them dealing with their own specific questions. More information (including more detailed instructions for applications) can be found in our website (www.ncoetundra.utu.fi). The duration of positions is two years, with an option of two years of extension (2+2). Note that since one of the aims of the NCoE is to promote Nordic co-operation, post docs and PhD students will not carry their research in the country of their citizenship (i.e. a Finnish citizen cannot be placed in Finland). Application deadline 15th of April 2011. All applications should be sent to the following address: [email protected] For queries on the different WPs, please contact the leaders and/or co-leaders listed below: WP 1 Predation and the dynamics of arctic-alpine food webs (Prof. Erkki Korpimäki, Univ. of Turku, [email protected], Assoc. Prof. Tarja Oksanen, Univ. of Turku, [email protected]) WP 2 Impact of vertebrate herbivory on tundra vegetation (Assoc. Prof. Johan Olofsson, Umeå Univ., [email protected]) WP 3 Impact of grazing on the dynamics of rare arctic-alpine plants (Prof. Lauri Oksanen, Univ. of Turku and Finnmark Univ. College, [email protected], [email protected], Prof. Lars Ericson, Umeå Univ., [email protected] WP 4 Moth-reindeer-birch dynamics in northernmost Fennoscandia (Prof. Pekka Niemelä, Univ. of Turku, [email protected], Prof. Rolf Anker Ims, Univ. of Tromsö, [email protected]) WP 5 Large scale impacts of herbivory on vegetation (Senior Res. Bernt Johansen, NORUT-IT, [email protected]) WP 6 Ecology and socio-economy of reindeer herding systems (Prof. Bruce C. Forbes, Univ. of Lapland, [email protected], Assoc. Prof. Tove Aagnes Utsi, Finnmark Univ. College, [email protected]) WP 7 interaction between vegetation and climate (Prof. Jouni Pulliainen, Finnish Meteor. Inst., [email protected]) WP 8 Abiotic processes, spatial information (GIS), synthesis and policy recommendations (Prof. Lauri Oksanen, Univ. of Turku, [email protected] and Prof. Jukka Käyhkö, Univ. of Turku, [email protected])
