We are offering a PhD position to work on local adaptation to climate in trees, as part of the EU project FunDiv http://www.fundiveurope.eu/. This project looks at the functional importance of biodiversity in European forests. As part of this project a network of sites has been set up in six countries: Finland, Poland, Germany, Romania, Spain and Italy. The subproject led by the University of Bern looks at local adaptation to climate in a different dominant tree species in each of these countries. The aim is to assess the degree of local adaptation in these trees, to the magnitude of climate change that they will experience over the next 50 years. The project will also investigate interactions between forest biodiversity and the expression of local adaptation. To accomplish this, seedlings from 5 different climatic provenances per country have already been planted in the forest plots at each site.
The announced PhD project will be responsible for measuring the performance of the tree seedlings in the field at each of the sites and offers the opportunity for some additional experiments. As well as possible collaborations within the Institute of Plant Sciences in Bern there will be opportunities for collaborations with other groups in the FunDiv project. We are looking for an ambitious and creative student with a keen interest in ecology and evolution. The applicant must have a university degree in a relevant field of biology and a good command of English. The applicant should be prepared to work in the field and to travel quite extensively to all of the European study sites. The position is for 3 years and the student will be supervised by Markus Fischer at the Plant Sciences Institute at the University of Bern. The institute offers a stimulating international research environment and excellent facilities. In addition to projects on plant biodiversity, our group is involved in projects on evolutionary and molecular plant ecology, functional forest biodiversity in China, plant population biology, Alpine ecology and invasion biology. www.botany.unibe.ch/planteco. Bern is a beautiful city with a high quality of life. Preferred starting date is January 1, 2013 (negotiable). Salary will be approximately 40, 000 CHF/year. Contact Eric Allan ([email protected]) for more info. Please send your application (preferably one PDF by email) to [email protected] Include a CV, names and addresses of at least 2 references, a short description of your research interests and your experience of ecological field work and statistical analysis. Applications will be reviewed from 15th October 2012 until the position is filled.
