MARUM has an opening for an exciting 4-yr PhD position using organic-geochemical and molecular-isotopic methods. I would be grateful if you could forward this opportunity to motivated and interested students.
Description about the project and PhD topic from the advertisement:
MARUM takes part in the large-scale international project AEGIS (Ancient Environmental Genomics Initiative for Sustainability), an effort coordinated by the University of Copenhagen and involving ten institutions across Europe, South Korea and the United States. Modern agricultural practices have built cropping systems that maximise yields in today’s climate, but lack genetic and organismal diversity and resilience to rapid climatic and environmental change. However, a rich record of past capabilities survives in sedimentary records as ancient biomolecules, including environmental DNA (eDNA). The main idea behind AEGIS is to tap into this vast archive to retrieve genetic and organismal information from the past and use nature’s own solutions to different climates as a means for improving future food sustainability.
Within this project the task of the PhD student will be to characterize the climatic development during the domestication, cultivation and breeding of ancient and modern crops from the Late Pleistocene to modern times. A spatial focus will be on lake and wetland systems in the Fertile Crescent, with possibilities to incorporate study sites across continental Europe and on Iceland. The project will apply organic-geochemical and isotopic methods for reconstructing temperature and water availability, and will investigate novel and established molecular tracers for human activity and specific plant inputs. It is expected that the PhD student takes part in the implementation and further development of these techniques. Good communication with project partners such a (bio)geochemists, (paleo)ecologists, (paleo)climatologist, archaeologists, and geneticists is expected.
For further information please look at the MARUM job offer: https://www.marum.de/en/career/open-positions-at-MARUM.html
Inquiries about the position please: please contact Enno Schefuß
