PhD Studentship in Tropical Ecology

Rainforest succession trajectories along an elevation gradient in times of climate change: a community-transplantation experiment in New Guinea

I am looking for an enthusiastic candidate to join a project exploring plant-insect food webs in tropical rainforests in Papua New Guinea, using manipulative experiments with entire communities to examine the effects of climate change on rainforest regeneration. The successful candidate will possess

• a MSc/MPhil degree (non-negotiable requirement for the PhD programme)

• serious interest in the ecology of insect and/or plant communities

• skills in [i] biostatistics and community ecology, [ii] phylogenetic analysis, or [iii] plant chemistry analysis

• fluency in spoken and written English

• ability to work independently and manage small teams in a tropical country

The details on the PhD project: (web). A field-work video: (web). The successful applicant will join the Ecology Department at the Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Science (web) and the Zoology Department of the University of South Bohemia (web). The candidate will live in Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic) (web) and conduct field work at the New Guinea Binatang Research Center (web). The PhD study will be supervised by Vojtech Novotny (web). Our Department is a diverse team (11 nationalities) studying ecology, evolution and biogeography, and a world-class centre for food web research with regular publications in Science, Nature and other leading journals. Both the Czech Republic and Papua New Guinea are easy-going countries where life is interesting.

The deadline for applications is Monday 24 April 2023, with a start date of September 1st 2022 (negotiable). The student will receive a scholarship fully covering living expenses in the Czech Republic for the 4-year PhD course. Applicants from all countries are eligible. To apply please email (with “PhD application” in the subject line) your CV, contact details for three references, electronic copy of your MSc thesis, and cover letter stating qualifications, previous work and motivation to Vojtech Novotny (novotny@entu.cas.cz) where you can also send any queries.