Research Associate “Rapid Adaptive Change – Subproject: Changes in population genomics of Ericaceae and their specific parasites in Northern Europe” § 28 Subsection 3 HmbHG

Duties primarily include research. Research associates may also pursue independent research and further academic qualifications. They may also pursue doctoral studies outside of working duties.

Understanding the responses of organisms to environmental change is critical to managing and preserving biodiversity, especially in the light of global climate change. The aim of our research consortium is to elucidate various mechanisms of rapid adaptive changes exemplarily in six subprojects using various biological collections of the University Hamburg and the Leibnitz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change. Our approach is taxonomically and functionally broad, spanning genomic, molecular, morphological, physiological and community level analysis in animals, plants and fungi. We will apply experimental evolution, phylogenomics, network analyses as well as utilize the rich biological collections that have been capturing diversity over the past 200 years.

This PhD project is part of the above mentioned research consortium that consists of six subprojects in total. Central to all projects is a data science approach to handle and analyze large and complex data. We search for skilled and motivated research associates for the following subproject. Changes in population genomics of Ericaceae and their specific parasites in northern Europe: Plants of the Ericaceae family are adapted to oligotrophic, moist environments with low pH like peat bogs or heathland. These ecosystems have undergone drastic changes in northern Germany due to human settlement and most of the populations experienced major declines during the last 200 years, which is well documented in herbaria. The analyses of ancient and recent population based on whole genome data should allow to identify to which extent various species suffer from the population decline. We are especially interested how the population decline effected specific fungal parasites in the same time period.