Researcher in Biology - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Researcher in Microbial Ecology

Subject description
A researcher position in microbial ecology is available to work with Johannes Rousk, professor of soil microbiology at Lund University. The project will focus on microbial responses to climate change factors in soil in general, including in particular microbial growth rate, microbial community property- and carbon-use efficiency responses to warming in soil.

Soil microorganisms govern the decomposer processes that dominate the terrestrial carbon and nutrient cycles. Recently, the ability to characterise microbial dependences on and responses to variation in environmental factors, including temperature, moisture, etc., have improved dramatically, partly due to method developments. In parallel, biogeochemical models have begun the incorporation of mechanistic representations of microbial processes. The project will focus on investigating microbial community responses to warming, with particular attention to the ability of soil microbial communities to align their temperature relationships to environmental change.
The project will include field work, maintenance of field experiments, a lot of laboratory work, including the use of tracking radio- and -stable isotopes into microbial markers, the use of using amplicon (16S/ITS) sequencing to characterize microbial community composition, and the determination of microbial temperature, moisture and other relationships.

Work duties
Detailed description of the work duties, such as:

• Research within the subject area
• Writing up MS for publication in scholarly journals
• Maintenance of field experiments in arctic, temperate and tropical environments.
• Teaching in the first, second and third cycles of studies
• Opportunity for training in higher education teaching and learning shall be given if teaching is part of the work duties.
• Supervision of degree projects and doctoral students
• Actively seeking external research funding
• Administration related to the work duties listed above

Qualifications

Requirements
Applicants must have:

• A PhD or equivalent research qualification within the subject of the position
• Very good oral and written proficiency in English.
• Documented experience with using radiolabel tracers (3H, 14C) to determine microbial growth rates in soil
• Experience with stable isotope approaches to determine C and N mineralisation
• Documented experience with DNA extraction from soil samples, and subsequent bioinformatic analyses (e.g. QIIME 2, etc.) to assess microbial alpha and beta diversity of microbial communities in soil
• Experience with the determination of microbial temperature, moisture relationships for microbial growth and respiration

Meriting

• Experience with publishing results obtained under the bullets “qualification requirements” is an important and valued qualification.

Consideration will also be given to good collaborative skills, drive and independence, and how the applicant’s experience and skills complement and strengthen ongoing research within the department, and how they stand to contribute to its future development.

Terms of employment
Fixed-term employment for 23 months. It is a full-time position (100%) Contact person: Johannes Rousk

Instructions on how to apply
Applications shall be written in English and be compiled into a PDF-file containing:

• résumé/CV, including a list of publications
• a general description of past research and future research interests (no more than two pages),
• contact information of at least two references
• copy of the doctoral degree certificate, and other certificates/grades that you wish to be considered
• Documentation as required under Qualification requirements (above)