The prospective PhD project aims to investigate i) the role of climate niches for species response to experimental future climate and ii) how demography and functional traits may explain the establishment success of immigrating plant species into grasslands of different land-use intensity exposed to climate change. The PhD researcher will have the opportunity to work in the large experimental platform Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF), where future climate is simulated in grasslands managed with different land-use intensity. The candidate will have the opportunity to use already existing data from the grasslands of the GCEF to ask whether the climate niche of species predicts performance in future climate. Further, the candidate will establish a novel seed-addition experiment and quantify if functional traits explain establishment success in experimental treatments.

The PhD will be directly supervised by Dr. Lotte Korell (UFZ). The project will be in close collaboration with Prof. Isabell Hensen (University of Halle-Wittenberg) and Dr. Christiane Roscher (UFZ). Other collaborators include Prof. Tiffany Knight (iDiv/UFZ) and Erik Welk (University of Halle-Wittenberg).

Your profile: You hold a master in ecology, botany or a related field and you are a highly qualified and motivated student with a strong interest in global change and plant ecology. You enjoy field and lab work and have a good knowledge and interest in statistics and data analysis using R. You have a solid knowledge of vascular plant species and plant morphology. In addition, you are a team player and have a good communication skills in English.

Application deadline: March 31, 2024

Find more information what the UFZ has to offer and how you can apply for this position using the following link
https://recruitingapp-5128.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/2904/Description/2