Application details for both positions are now available – see below!
I am looking for two new PhD students to join the Evolution & Adaptation group at iDiv in Leipzig (Germany) from October 2020 onwards. The positions are fully funded (65% of a full time employment, Salary: Entgeltgruppe 13 TV-L) and for 3 + 1 years. There is a budget available for consumables to perform fieldwork, lab work, sequencing, visit conferences, herbaria, collaborators and take courses. The PhD students will become part of the yDiv graduate school. iDiv is a very international place to work in and learn about Biodiversity science more generally, with weekly seminars, and Leipzig is a lovely city with lots of green space and a cultural history to live in.
Below I briefly describe both projects. Feel free to get in touch (onsteinre@gmail.com) to find out more, if you are interested in applying to one of them:
1. Macroecology and macroevolution of plant – frugivore trait matching in the tropics
Application details available from here: 113_iDiv_P3_REO_engl and 112_general_announcement__4thFlexPoolcall_engl. Deadline for application: 10th July 2020.
Background: Mutualistic interactions between fleshy-fruited plants and frugivorous animals are prominent in tropical rainforests. These interactions are facilitated by the evolution of matching traits in both plants and frugivores, such as fruit size and frugivore gape width. Due to ongoing global change (e.g., defaunation) trait matching may have been distorted in certain places, such as highly disrupted regions, leading to co-extinction or rapid evolutionary change in plants/animals that relied on these locally extinct interaction partners. However, which places harbour such mismatches in traits is unknown. Furthermore, it is unclear when these interaction-relevant traits evolved, and whether they have influenced the past diversification dynamics of plants and frugivores. In this PhD project, we aim to understand the impact of frugivory-related plant and disperser trait origin and extinction on the macroecology and macroevolution of fruit-frugivore trait matching, by addressing three main questions: (1) Do frugivory-related plant and animal dispersal syndromes (i.e., sets of correlated traits) differ among biogeographical realms, or mainland/island systems? (2) Is the spatial distribution of frugivory-related plant traits matched by the corresponding animal disperser traits (e.g., fruit size ~ gape width), or are there mismatches due to Late Quaternary extinctions of particular mammalian, avian or reptilian functional groups? (3) Has there been trait matching or mismatching during particular geological time periods, leading to increased (co-)speciation or extinction? To answer these questions, we will focus on three plant clades that are keystone resources for frugivores in the tropics: Arecaceae (palms), Annonaceae (custard apples) and Fabaceae – Mimosoideae (legumes). Furthermore, we will match the plant data to frugivore data, primarily focusing on frugivorous birds and mammals. We will integrate phylogenetic, distribution and functional trait data for these clades and apply macroecological and macroevolutionary methods to answer the research questions. This project will shed light on the biogeography of plant-frugivore interactions to be able to identify places and lineages prone to ongoing (co-)extinctions of their interaction partners. This project is supervised by me, Ingolf Kühn, Isabell Hensen and Irene Bender, but the student will work with several more collaborators for the specific datasets and their expertise on the plant and animal clades.
Tasks:
- Developing specific research questions and hypotheses within the scope of the project;
- Assembling/cleaning plant and animal frugivory-related traits, phylogenetic and distribution data from online databases, literature, monographs and herbarium visits (partly already done);
- Applying macroecological and macroevolutionary methods to test the specific hypotheses;
- Writing and publishing scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals;
- Presenting results at national and international conferences;
- Participation in iDiv’s PhD training program yDiv.
Requirements: Applicants should hold a Master’s or equivalent degree in a related field of research (e.g., biosystematics, (macro-)ecology, (macro-)evolution, environmental sciences). The successful candidate should be innovative, able to work on his or her own initiative, have expertise and experience in phylogenetics or working with phylogenetic data, interest and ability in handling spatial data and functional traits and strong statistical skills (in R). Candidates should be team-oriented and have strong organizational skills, in order to manage this collaborative research project within an international consortium. Excellent English communication skills (speaking and writing) are required. We seek candidates with an independent mind and the ambition to publish in internationally leading journals.
2. Adaptive evolution of plant-frugivore interactions on Madagascar
Application details available from here: 142_iDiv_PhD_Onstein_EA_engl. Deadline for application: 20th July 2020.
Background: Madagascar harbours exceptional biodiversity, but this tropical hotspot also faces increasing threat from human activities and climate change. Plants with large, ‘megafaunal’ fruits are common across the flora of Madagascar, especially within the palm (Arecaceae) family. However, Pleistocene-Holocene extinctions of large-bodied ‘megafaunal’ fruit-eating and seed-dispersing animals (such as giant lemurs) may have hindered the dispersal of taxa with megafaunal fruits. In this project we aim to investigate the molecular, micro- to macroevolutionary consequences of dispersal limitation in palms, specifically focusing on adaptive evolution of a megafaunal-fruited palm, Hyphaene coriacea, using a comparative framework of Madagascar (all megafauna extinct) and mainland Africa (where H. coriacea is still frequently dispersed by elephants). Specifically, we aim to (i) identify candidate genes for fruit and seed traits important for plant-frugivore interactions, (2) pick up genetic traces of selection or adaptation in relation to dispersal by smaller-bodied frugivores, and (3) evaluate the macroevolution of candidate genes or gene families across the palm family. This project integrates the fields of plant evolution, molecular evolution and plant-frugivore interaction ecology. It will be in collaboration with researchers from Hohenheim University (Prof. Philipp Schlüter) and University of Miami (Prof. Mauro Galetti), among others.
Tasks:
- Collecting genetic samples from H. coriacea individuals and populations on Madagascar and mainland Africa, and measuring their functional traits (part of these samples have already been collected);
- Collecting ecological information about the seed dispersal effectiveness (e.g., using camera traps) and demography of H. coriacea in the study areas;
- Using novel genomic and transcriptomic techniques (e.g., RAD-seq, RNA-seq) to infer candidate genes for functional traits and evaluate traces of selection;
- Writing and publishing of scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals;
- Presentation of results at international conferences;
- Participation in iDiv’s PhD training program yDiv.
Requirements: Applicants should hold a Master’s or equivalent degree in a related field of research (e.g. molecular biology, genetics, phylogenetics, population genomics, ecology and evolution). The successful candidate should be innovative, able to work on his or her own initiative, and willing to spend several months in the field (Madagascar/mainland Africa). Therefore, prior experience with tropical natural history, fieldwork and basic living conditions is advantageous. Furthermore, the successful candidate should have prior experience using molecular techniques, preferably with transcriptomics or bioinformatics, incl. the basics of scripting/programming for handling and statistically analysing large genetic/genomic datasets. Candidates should be team-oriented and have strong organizational skills, in order to manage this collaborative research project within an international consortium. Excellent English communication skills (speaking and writing) are required. We seek candidates with an independent mind and the ambition to publish in internationally leading journals.
Onstein is ON 