Postdoc position in plant ecology

The Department of Crop Production Ecology is part of the Ecology Centre and together with the Department of Ecology, it offers a stimulating research environment in Uppsala. We provide education and perform research on plants for food, animal feed, and energy. The research and teaching focus strongly on agricultural crop production and its interaction with the surrounding environment. The research programmes address how different production methods, cultivation environments, and systems influence yields and other ecosystem services, as well as product quality and the surrounding environment. We teach about crop production, plant ecology, ecophysiology, weed biology, and crop production systems in an ecological sustainability context.

Duties

Are you searching for a postdoc project in which you, together with interdisciplinary teams and colleagues from a Swedish plant breeding company, will explore wheat, soybean and lupine cultivars for their yield performance and cropping security under Nordic conditions? Do you thrive in a multidisciplinary and international research environment? Then this postdoc position at the Department of Crop Production Ecology, SLU Uppsala should be of interest to you.

In about half of your research time, you will study the root system of mainly wheat and its importance for nutrient uptake, disease resistance and adaptation to different environments. The aim is to develop methods for identifying plant characteristics that plant breeders can use as tools for selection of genotypes with high cropping security in terms of nutrient use efficiency, disease resistance (root pathogens), and yield stability in different cultivation environments and systems. The second half of your research time will be devoted to the study of root fungal communities of soybeans and lupines by meta-barcoding, looking for fungal pathogens. The aims are here to describe the interactions between diseases and weeds in dependency of cultivar identity and management, and to, based on literature, identify potential alternate weed hosts for fungal pathogens that have been identified in the field.

The work will be done in a stimulating research environment at SLU, which includes several doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows, and within the framework of the research center SLU Grogrund (Centre for Breeding of Food Crops), which is a knowledge hub for Swedish plant breeding. You will thus have the opportunity to develop new contacts with various researchers and stakeholders within SLU Grogrund.

Qualifications

The required qualification for this postdoc position is a PhD that can be in plant pathology, plant ecology or biology. We are primarily looking for candidates that have received their PhD no more than three years before the last application date for this post. You must have documented a great interest in agricultural plant production and plant pathology. Previous experience with plant breeding issues is a merit, as is experience in fieldwork. Very good skills in English (both written and oral) are required as well as to communicate (understand and speak), or being willing to learn, Swedish or another Scandinavian language. Particular emphasis will be placed on your personal skills as team player as well as your ability to take initiatives and work independently.

Place of work

Uppsala, Sweden.

Form of employment

Employment full time (100 %). Time limited position as postdoctoral researcher 24 months.

Extent

100%.

Starting date

By agreement.

Application

Welcome with your application (by clicking on the application button) by 2022-04-20 at the latest.

The application must be written in English and contain: i) a statement of scientific interests and motivation for applying to this position, highlighting current research interests and other activities of relevance for the position (max 8000 characters including spaces); ii) Curriculum Vitae including a complete publication list, separating peer-reviewed papers from other publications; iii) contact information to at least two reference persons; iv) copies of previous university degrees and transcripts of academic records.



The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is a world-class international university with research, education and environmental assessment within the sciences for sustainable life. Its principal sites are in Alnarp, Umeå and Uppsala, but activities are also conducted at research stations, experimental parks and educational establishments throughout Sweden. We bring together people who have different perspectives, but they all have one and the same goal: to create the best conditions for a sustainable, thriving and better world.

SLU has just over 3,000 employees, 5,000 students and a turnover of SEK 3 billion. The university has invested heavily in a modern, attractive environment on its campuses.

www.slu.se