Opportunities (open positions)

Positions in ecosystem modelling

PhD Projects:

Please check opportunities in Uk-based PhD portals to join my lab in the UK

BSc/MSc projects: I´m still open to supervise master and bachelor students in Würzburg

Topic 1: How does the regime of pollination loss affect plant extinctions?

Project description:

Events of habitat perturbation are seldom isolated occurrences. Be it climate change, habitat destruction or species invasions, the conditions necessary for species persistence are constantly being altered.

Independently of the regime of perturbation, however, species extinctions are not immediate. Different species will respond differently to the changes in habitat conditions and perish at different rates. In addition, the extinction processes of interacting species can affect each other, since their persistence depends on the services they exchange.

In this project, we will use a computer model to study the impact that different regimes of loss of pollination services can have on the extinction dynamics of a plant community. More specifically, we will verify whether metrics of plant extinction (e.g. total number of extinctions, time to extinctions, extinction order) change in scenarios simulating pulse (single occurrence), constant and increasing loss of pollination services.

Requirements: Experience or willingness to work with ecological simulation models and acquire computational skills (R and Julia programming languages, software version control)

Application: a letter of motivation to PhD candidte contact Ludmilla Figueiredo (ludmilla.figueiredo@uni-wuerzburg.de) and to Prof. Dr. Juliano Sarmento Cabral (juliano.sarmento_cabral@uni-wuerzburg.de).

 

Topic 2: What macrophyte can grow in what conditions?

Project description:

Species typically exhibit preferences for particular environmental conditions (fundamental niche). Functional growth models take this into account by simulating the ecophysiology and biomass growth of species under different environmental conditions.

In this project, we will use a computer model to study how macrophyte species species grow in different environmental conditions, including under environmentla change.  Specifically, we will investigate how species grow biomass along environmental gradients and dynamic environments.

Requirements: Experience or willingness to work with ecological simulation models and acquire computational skills (R and Julia programming languages, software version control)

Application: Contact Anne Lewerentz (anne-lewerentz@uni-wuerzburg.de) and/or Prof. Dr. Juliano Sarmento Cabral (juliano.sarmento_cabral@uni-wuerzburg.de).