Researcher position in climate resilience of biological pest control

Department of Ecology
The Department of Ecology conducts research and education in ecology on the dynamics of populations, organism societies and ecosystems, often focusing on the ecology of agricultural and forest landscapes. Fundamental and applied issues about ecological consequences of land use and biodiversity are often handled together in both individual projects and larger collaborations.
Duties:
Climate change is one of the foremost environmental and societal issues of our time. It is of great importance to develop management strategies that aim to mitigate the fallout of climate change by maintaining or increasing the climate resilience of essential ecosystem services. Biological pest control, the regulation of pest species by natural enemies, is an ecosystem service considered essential for sustainable agricultural production. In response to climate change, pest problems are predicted to increase. At the same time, climate change is also likely to have strong, but largely untested, effects on the pest control potential of natural enemies, making it difficult to predict how biocontrol-providing communities will be able to perform in the future.

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate who is actively pursuing an academic career with an interest in utilising a previously developed climate resilience framework to predict and empirically test the effects of soil tillage on the climate resilience of biological control services in a pest-predator system (aphids, carabid beetles, wolf spiders) in Swedish barley fields. The candidate is further expected to advance the framework by improving the accuracy of arthropod climate niches through in-field surveys and mesocosm experiments under controlled climate conditions in the lab.

Qualifications:

• PhD in terrestrial ecology or related field.
• Demonstrated research experience on the topics of biological pest control, climate niches of arthropod predators, functional redundancy and climate resilience of ecosystem services.
• Experience with mesocosm experiments under controlled climate conditions particularly with carabids and wolf spiders.
• Excellent written and oral English communication skills.
• Statistical programming skills in R.
• Demonstrated ability to publish findings in international peer-reviewed journals.
• Effective inter- and intrapersonal communication skills.

Desired:


• Experience in international collaborations.
• Experience in project design and management.
• Demonstrated success in funding acquisition.

Place of work:
Uppsala, Sweden.

Form of employment:
Permanent employment.

Extent:
100%.

Starting date:
By agreement.

Application:
The application must be written in English and contain: i) a statement of scientific interests and motivation for applying to this position; ii) Curriculum Vitae including a complete publication list, separating peer-reviewed papers from other publications. The statement should highlight current research interests, expertise, and other activities of relevance for the advertised position. The applicant is also encouraged to discuss what, in their opinion, the key knowledge gaps are within the project topic described in this advertisement and propose approaches to fill these knowledge gaps. It should be clarified how these approaches are related to the applicant’s expertise.

We welcome your application no later than Februari 14, 2022, use the button below. 

Academic union representatives:
https://internt.slu.se/en/my-employment/employee-associations/kontaktpersoner-vid-rekrytering/



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