Researcher Phenological adaptation in variable environments 12 month pos
A 12 month position as a researcher in Evolutionary Ecology is open at
Lund University.
Topic: Evolution in variable environments, Phenology in interactive
communities
Project description
This is a project on how organisms use environmental or internal cues to
time key life history events such as reproduction or migration in
seasonal environments. The selection of such phenological traits is in
many ways affected by intra- and inter-specific interactions and thus
frequency dependent. The available cues are stochastic in nature. On top
of this, many species are facing ongoing climate change. There is to
date very little understanding of the complete picture, how interacting
species will respond to a shifting climate, and what the effects on are
biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The purpose of this project is to develop general theory regarding:
1. How organisms optimally should allocate energy between growth and
reproduction in unpredictable and seasonal environments.
2. Under which circumstances we can expect organisms to employ day
length, temperatures or developmental stage as cues to time critical
events in their annual life cycle.
3. How selection among mechanisms to handle environmental variability
are influenced by intra- and interspecific competition.
The theoretical work will be related to data from bumble bee
(/Bombus/ spp) colony experiments and to data on plant and insect
phenology from the Swedish Phenology Network
(http://www.naturenskalender.se/ <http://www.naturenskalender.se/>).
Depending on the qualifications and interests of the chosen candidate,
this project can be geared towards developing general theory, analyzing
specific model systems or empirical studies.
The environment in Lund offers a range of opportunities for
collaborations with research groups working on pollination ecology,
plant phenology, bird phenology or the evolutionary ecology of insects,
especially within the BECC environment (http://www.becc.lu.se
<http://www.becc.lu.se/>).
The project will be based in Lund, but the candidate will be offered
opportunities to visit Imperial College London (Silwood park), where one
of the PIs is currently based and where we have ongoing collaborations
within the research initiative Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the
Environment (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/ecosystems-and-environment/
<http://www.imperial.ac.uk/ecosystems-and-environment/>).
Project leaders:
Jörgen Ripa & Jacob Johansson
http://www.biology.lu.se/jorgen-ripa <http://www.biology.lu.se/jorgen-ripa>
http://www.biology.lu.se/jacob-johansson
<http://www.biology.lu.se/jacob-johansson>
Please find more details here:
https://lu.mynetworkglobal.com/en/what:job/jobID:124855/
<https://lu.mynetworkglobal.com/en/what:job/jobID:124855/>
