Dear ecologists, I’d like to draw your attention to a PhD position that is open in my new Biogeography and Biodiversity Lab at the Goethe University-Frankfurt, Germany (https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/71993212/ir). The PhD student will work within the the fully funded DFG project "Quartz Islands - Island biogeography and ecology of distinct terrestrial habitat islands“ that I’m co-supervising together with Ute Schmiedel and Jens Oldeland (both at Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology Lab of the University of Hamburg https://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/en/forschung/oekologie-biologische-ressourcen/biodivevooek.html). The position is a 3 year fixed-term contract (65%, E13, TV-G-U). Starting date is January 1st (somewhat flexible…).
The project The project aims at studying plant diversity and endemism in the floristically quite unique habitat islands (so-called quartz islands) of the Knersvlakte in South Africa. These quartz islands are famous for their ‚living stones‘ from the Aizoaceae family - minuscule succulents that look like pebbles during the dry period but produce extravagant flowers during the rainy season. A really fascinating and quite poorly studied system! Our aim is to combine approaches from community ecology, island biogeography and remote sensing to study what determines plant diversity and endemism across scales - from the plot scale to the ‚island‘ and landscape scale. Requirements We are searching for a candidate that - has skills in botany and plant identification in the field as well as background knowledge in island biogeography - has skills in R and GIS - has experience with soil analyses - is willing to conduct field sampling under somewhat adventurous conditions in a remote, arid environment - is willing to present and publish scientific results at international conferences and peer-reviewed journals - has a background in biogeography, biology, ecology, physical geography or a related discipline For more information please follow the link: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794896/fb11 Application deadline is October 20th. So only 9 days remaining to apply!! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Also, please feel free to forward this information to anyone you find suitable or of potential interest! All the best Severin -------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Severin Irl Biogeography and Biodiversity Lab Institute of Physical Geography Department of Geoscience Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany tel.: +49-69-798-40171 Faculty page<https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/71993212/ir> - Google scholar<http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Q8q3_48AAAAJ&hl=de> - Research Gate<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Severin_Irl> - OrcID<http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1734-8607> Society for Island Biology (SIB): www.islandbiology.com<http://www.islandbiology.com>
