Research Fellow in Plant Evolutionary Ecology (Postdoc)

Research Fellow in Plant Evolutionary Ecology (Postdoc)

University of Tartu

Tartu, Estonia

We are looking for a 2-year postdoctoral research fellow within the European Research Council project PlantSoilAdapt - “Eco-evolutionary dynamics in plant-soil interactions during land use transition: consequences for soil functioning and resilience to drought”, led by Prof. Marina Semchenko.

Duties and responsibilities

• Contribute to designing and carrying out field and greenhouse experiments.
• Contribute to laboratory work and measurements of plant phenotypes, soil microbial communities and ecosystem functions.
• Perform statistical analysis of existing and resulting data.
• Communicate the findings via conference presentations and publications in leading journals in the field.
• Take a leading role in setting up, implementing and publishing results of some of the experiments.
• Active participation in group meetings and collaboration with team members by offering help and co-supervising students.
• Willingness to learn new techniques to perform interdisciplinary research.

Required qualifications

• PhD or an equivalent qualification.

Required experience

• Understanding of plant interactions with soil microbial communities, eco-evolutionary dynamics in plant-soil interactions and their consequences for ecosystem functioning and ecosystem response to global change.
• Experience in setting up manipulative ecological experiments in the field and/or laboratory setting.
• Experience in laboratory techniques associated with plant and soil microbial research.
• Competence in statistical data analysis, preferably in R.
• A significant advantage is the experience in using molecular techniques to characterize soil microbial communities, measure root exudates and metabolome, and/or use stable isotopes.
• Publication record as a leading/first author in internationally recognised journals will be an advantage.
• Ability to synthesise literature, produce good graphics and present information effectively at conferences and in publications.
• Experience in plant identification and vegetation surveys will be an advantage.

Required language skills

• Strong written and verbal English communication skills.

Personal qualities

• Strong collaboration and communication skills for working in an internationally diverse scientific community.
• Willingness to promote inclusive and supportive work environment.

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