Doktorand in Leipzig bei German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)

External Job Announcement

Reg.-Nr. 4-11526/23-D

Modern, interconnected, conscious of tradition: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) is the old-

est and largest university in the State of Saxony-Anhalt with a history dating back more than 500 years. Today

more than 20,000 students are enrolled at the university. MLU’s core research areas are in the nanosciences

and bio-sciences, the Enlightenment, as well as in social and cultural research. The university is also home to

a range of small disciplines, some of which can be found nowhere else in Germany. The university has excel-

lent national and international ties, and works closely together with leading research institutes, industry, and

more than 250 universities around the world.

The Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, in cooperation with the DFG-funded International Research

Training Group GRK 2324 "TreeDì - Tree Diversity Interactions: The role of tree-tree interactions in local

neighbourhoods in Chinese subtropical forests" (www.treedi.de) and the German Centre for Integrative Bi-

odiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, invites applications for the following position, starting 01 June

2024, limited to 3 years:

Doctoral Researcher (m/f/d) on the project

"Bottom-up and top-down drivers of herbivory" (P4G-3)
as part-time employment (65%).

The salary will be up to Entgeltgruppe 13 TV-L if the personal requirements and tasks are fulfilled.

The research topic:

Insect herbivores are important moderators of ecosystem structure and functioning. Recent work in the

BEF-China project has shown that insect herbivory increases with increasing tree diversity in biodiverse

subtropical forests. Local tree interactions might explain the observed community-level associations among

herbivores, their enemies, and tree diversity, but are likely modified by the wider tree neighbourhood. However,

the relative importance of potential bottom-up (plant-mediated) and top-down (enemy-mediated) mechanisms

underlying such associational effects, and their scale-dependence, remain unclear. The aim of the project is (1)

to jointly study causes and effects of insect herbivory by (2) analysing the functional composition of, and

interactions among, herbivore communities, their natural enemies, and their host trees using (3) observational

and experimental approaches based on taxonomic and molecular methods in the field and in the lab. The project

is supervised by Prof. Dr. Andreas Schuldt (andreas.schuldt@forst.uni-goettingen.de; https://www.uni-goettin-

gen.de/en/588022.html). The doctoral researcher will be integrated into the working group of Prof. Andreas

Schuldt.

Tasks:

• Task 1: to estimate the leaf area damaged by insect herbivores and to study the effect of herbivory on tree

productivity

• Task 2: to identify insect herbivores and their natural enemies to develop a functional characterization of

key trophic interactions

• Task 3: to experimentally manipulate predator and herbivore communities (e.g. predator attraction, herbi-

vore exclusion experiments).

veröffentlicht am 21.11.2023

The doctoral researcher will team up with the fellow on the Chinese side, who will study in parallel herbivore-

parasitoid interactions and the phylogenetic framework of trophic interactions. Supervision and assistance will

be provided by a Joint German-Chinese PhD Advisory Committee (PAC), combining empirical and theoretical

expertise. All TreeDì fellows will have to submit their PhD thesis as a cumulative thesis, comprising at least

three chapters in the form of first author papers in international peer-reviewed journals, of which at least one

paper has to be accepted or published at the time of thesis submission. TreeDì fosters early experience in au-

tonomous research, and thus, encourages to become engaged in synthesis, making use of available data from

previous projects. Moreover, the work will also include scientific exchange with other working groups, partici-

pation in the TreeDì qualification programme, and presentations at international conferences.

Requirements:

• A completed scientific University degree (Diploma/ M.Sc.) in a project-related field (e.g. ecology, environ-

mental sciences)

• Very good ecological knowledge and great interest with regard to forest biodiversity research

• Good quantitative and statistical skills in R are essential

• Experience in insect ecology and arthropod identification are advantageous