PhD Project in Arctic plants’ thermal acclimation and heat-stress responses

Terrestrial Ecology Section, Department of Biology invites applicants for a PhD fellowship in quantifying arctic plants’ thermal acclimation and responses to heatwaves. This PhD position is a part of a recently funded 5-year Villum Young Investigator project “Plant temperature-regulated Arctic responses and feedbacks to the changing climate” (2023-2028).

Start date is expected to be 1st September 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The project

Strong, ongoing warming in the Arctic is causing drastic changes on arctic vegetation and plant functionality, which can modify potential roles of the arctic ecosystems in the climate system. This amplified warming is expected to largely increase the frequency of heatwaves in this region. Under heatwaves, we expect a reduced plant uptake of CO2, but a large burst of stress volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as a plant defense mechanism. Meanwhile, plants can also acclimate to the warmer condition and might change stress responses to heatwaves depending on the preceding growth condition.

We currently lack quantitative relationships about how plant photosynthetic activities, phenology and VOC emissions acclimate to different growing temperatures and how plants growing at different temperatures respond to different strengths of heatwaves.

The PhD candidate will make field and/or lab-based experiments with arctic shrub species. State-of-the-art climate chambers are available for experiments. The PhD will determine key response curves for different photosynthetic processes and VOC emissions under different growth temperatures and also quantify their responses to different levels of heatwaves. The derived relationships will be directly integrated into a widely-used ecosystem model, LPJ-GUESS to assess large-scale impacts on CO2 and VOC fluxes.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for candidates within the field(s) of plant physiology or environmental sciences, with knowledge in theoretical and experimental ecology. It will be a plus if the candidate has some experience with plant photosynthesis or VOC measurements.

Our group and research- and what do we offer?

Jing Tang’ research group is at the Department of Biology, Faculty of SCIENCE, University of Copenhagen. We are located in Copenhagen. Tang’s group focuses on understanding high-latitude ecosystem dynamics and associated feedbacks under changing climate, primarily based on integration of process-based modelling and observations. By joining this group, the candidate will also be affiliated to the Terrestrial Ecology Section (https://www1.bio.ku.dk/english/research/te/) and Center for Volatile Interactions (VOLT), a Centre of Excellence funded by The Danish National Research Foundation. Both the VOLT center and the section offer a wide range of research topics in plant physiology, biogeochemistry, soil biology, and ecosystem-atmosphere interactions.

We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include all modern laboratories needed for this position and also supercomputering resources for model simulations and heavy data processing.

Principal supervisor is Assistant Professor, Jing Tang, Department of Biology, jing.tang@bio.ku.dk, Direct Phone: +45-35334606 and the second supervisor is Professor Riikka Rinnan who leads the VOLT center and has wide knowledge in arctic plant physiology and VOC emissions.

Qualifications needed for the regular programme
To be eligible for the regular PhD programme, you must have completed a degree programme, equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (180 ECTS/3 FTE BSc + 120 ECTS/2 FTE MSc) related to the subject area of the project, e.g. Ecology, Biology, climate science, physical geography or related field. For information of eligibility of completed programmes, see General assessments for specific countries and Assessment database.

Terms of employment in the regular programme
Employment as PhD fellow is full time and for maximum 3 years.

Employment is conditional upon your successful enrolment as a PhD student at the PhD School at the Faculty of SCIENCE, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.

The terms of employment and salary are in accordance to the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State (AC). The position is covered by the Protocol on Job Structure.

Responsibilities and tasks

• Carry through an independent research project under supervision
• Complete PhD courses corresponding to approx. 30 ECTS / ½ FTE
• Participate in active research environments, including a stay at another research institution, preferably abroad
• Teaching and knowledge dissemination activities
• Write scientific papers aimed at high-impact journals
• Write and defend a PhD thesis on the basis of your project

We are looking for the following qualifications:

• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
• Relevant publications, if any
• Relevant work experience
• Other relevant professional activities
• Curious mind-set with a strong interest in plant sciences and/or climate change
• Knowledge on experiement design and at least basic skills in R/Matlab/Python to analyze data
• Good written and oral English skills

Application and Assessment Procedure

Your application including all attachments must be in English and submitted electronically by clicking APPLY NOW below.

Please include:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page, if possible, please describe why you want to do a PhD)
2. Your motivation for applying for the PhD project
3. Curriculum vitae including information about your education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
4. Original diplomas for Bachelor of Science and Master of Science and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in another language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted.
5. Publication list (if possible)

Application deadline:

The deadline for applications is 14th May 2023, 23:59 GMT +2.

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After deadline, a number of applicants will be selected for academic assessment by an unbiased expert assessor. You are notified, whether you will be passed for assessment.

The assessor will assess the qualifications and experience of the shortlisted applicants with respect to the above mentioned research area, techniques, skills and other requirements. The assessor will conclude whether each applicant is qualified and, if so, for which of the two models. The assessed applicants will have the opportunity to comment on their assessment. You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/.

Interviews with selected candidates are expected to be held on the 14th and 15th of June.

Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor.

General information about PhD study at the Faculty of SCIENCE is available at the PhD School’s website: https://www.science.ku.dk/phd/.

The University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the surrounding community and invites all regardless of personal background to apply for the position.