Open call - PhD position
Apply for a 4-year fully funded Junior Researcher (PhD) position within FutureScapes
Project: Regional drivers promoting carbon accumulation in soil and dead wood under changing climate conditions
Application period: 1.05-15.05.2024
This ambitious PhD project aims to assess carbon accumulation potential in hemiboreal forests by concurrently analyzing decomposition in both above- (dead wood) and belowground (soil) carbon pools, identifying key biotic and abiotic drivers, and the potential climate change effects. Soil and dead trees represent over half of short to medium term forest carbon pools, and are vulnerable to forest management and climate change. The key innovation of this project lies in simultaneously assessing the drivers enabling carbon accumulation in these pools, which have in scientific literature so far been considered separately.
This enables a holistic measurement of qualitative and quantitative changes in forest organic C accumulation pathways in relation to abiotic conditions and environmental changes (soil moisture and temperature) and planning climate-smart management which simultaneously mitigate carbon footprints while preserving biodiversity. Using a study setup established in 2023, the project will complement existing experiments by studying decomposition of additional substrates and analyzing data collectively.
You will be able to do fieldwork in Estonian hemiboreal forests, learn modern lab techniques (qPCr and metabarcoding related), bioinformatics and statistics, all desired skills in the Academia. Outputs include a review on forest management strategies for carbon retention and case studies examining carbon accumulation in forests across abiotic gradients.
You will be based in Oecologicum, Tartu, Estonia, hosted by Sustainable Forest Management Group.
Desired Knowledge and Skills: Experience in one of the above-mentioned topics is desired, drivers licence is a merit.
Contact the supervisors for further information about the application process:
