Vacancy for PhD (4 years) or Postdoctoral (3 years) Candidate Ghent University (Belgium)
Development trajectories of temperate forest plant communities under global change: combining hindsight and forecasting (PASTFORWARD).

ERC Consolidator Grant project (http://erc.europa.eu)

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Multiple global environmental changes are affecting ecosystems across the biosphere. Temperate forests, and their vascular understorey flora, are not immune to changes wrought by atmospheric deposition of acidifying and nutrient- enriching pollutants, climate alterations, past land-use dynamics, management decisions, and increasing herbivore pressures. However, our understanding of these interactions, and their effects on forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, is limited by the preponderance of short-term research in single locations, often considering factors in isolation. In the overarching PASTFORWARD project, a combination of experimental, re-survey and modelling approaches, using data from across Europe, will reveal the interactions among land use legacies and multiple contemporary environmental changes, and their effects on ecosystem composition and function.

Here, we advertise for a postdoctoral or PhD candidate to advance the modelling aspects of this work, and join a dynamic team of 3 PhDs and a postdoc, together with research technicians and collaborators, led by Prof. Kris Verheyen.

VACANCY DESCRIPTION AND CANDIDATE PROFILE

The successful candidate will develop/adapt and implement a mechanistic model to describe the direct and indirect effects of environmental change on ecosystems, using a trait-based framework. They will utilize findings from the re-survey and experimental approaches to help guide model development and aid model parameterization. Ultimately, they will use information on past ecosystem dynamics in relation to environmental change and land use legacies to inform future forest management decisions through scenario analyses. Depending on experience, they will actively engage with existing collaborators and pursue appropriate opportunities, within and outside of Ghent University, to further their research.

RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT

The successful candidate will be based, along with the rest of the PASTFORWARD team, at the Forest & Nature Lab (www.fornalab.ugent.be) of Ghent University, Belgium. ForNaLab consists of 35 staff members and is headed by Prof. Kris Verheyen. The research group is part of the Department of Forest and Water Management at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University (www.ugent.be).

ForNaLab’s mission is to perform hypothesis-driven research on the interactions between composition and ecosystem function, with a clear pathway to inform ecosystem management. ForNaLab is actively involved in numerous national and international projects and networks, including FLEUR (www.fleur.ugent.be), forestREplot (www.forestreplot.ugent.be), TreeDivNet (www.treedivnet.ugent.be), TreeDivBelgium (www.treedivbelgium.ugent.be), FunDivEUROPE (www.fundiveurope.eu) and smallFOREST (http://upicardie.fr/smallforest/uk/).

In addition to working with Kris, the successful candidate will liaise extensively with Dr. Mike Perring (UGent and Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology Research Group, The University of Western Australia (http://www.erie-research.org/index.html)). Mike is an ecosystem ecologist with experience of model development and field-based research, who continues to investigate environmental change and species composition effects on ecosystem function in the context of aiding management intervention.

INTERESTED?

Please send a CV and cover letter explaining how you would approach the position, and answering the following selection criteria, to [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask] by November 15th 2015:

PhD CANDIDATE

· You have a Masters, or Honours, degree in Bioscience Engineering, Mathematics, Biology, Ecology or equivalent degree in Life or Mathematical Sciences with some background in Ecology (also candidates that will obtain an equivalent degree soon are invited to apply)
· You have excellent study grades
· You have published your research, or show potential to do so
· You are an enthusiastic and highly motivated student with a strong interest in utilizing mathematical theory to aid ecological understanding
· You are highly motivated to work in a collaborative project with other PhD students, postdocs and technical assistants
· You have knowledge of, and preferentially experience with, model development, parameterization and validation.
· You have good knowledge of both the biotic and abiotic components and processes in temperate forest ecosystems

Our offer:
· We offer a PhD scholarship for four years (full time, ca. €1900 net per month)
· Start date is January 2016

POST-DOCTORAL CANDIDATE

· You have a PhD in Bioscience Engineering, Mathematical Biology, Mathematical Ecology or an equivalent degree in Life Sciences with a solid background in Ecology and Modelling (also candidates that will obtain their PhD degree soon are invited to apply)
· You have a strong publication record, relevant to the subject of the project
· You are an enthusiastic and highly motivated person with a strong interest and experience in ecosystem modelling. Knowledge of plant trait frameworks would be an advantage.
· You are highly motivated to work in a collaborative project with PhD students, other post-docs, and technical assistants
· You have experience in, or are keen to develop, networking opportunities to develop your research career
· You have leadership capacities
· To be able to offer you a tax-free international post-doc position, you may not have resided in Belgium for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the start date of your contract. In addition, you may not have obtained your PhD at a Belgian institution

Our offer:
· We offer a post-doc position for three years (full time, ca. €2300 net per month)
· Start date is January 2016