Project titled: “Turning up the heat on soil food webs: will global warming erode ecosystem resilience.
Project Description: Climate change is imposing multifaceted effects on organisms and ecosystem processes. While many studies have explored the ecological consequences of global warming, few have investigated whether rising temperatures jeopardize the ability of ecosystems to withstand other disturbances, like drought. Soil ecosystems are extremely complex and particularly vulnerable to climate change. However, we do not know how global warming will affect the capacity of soil ecosystems to resist and recover from disturbance. This project aims to explore the impact of warming on soil food web resilience by using unique, naturally heated geothermal gradients in New Zealand as a model for global warming and rainout shelters to mimic drought. Students involved in this research will work collaboratively, connecting changes in soil biology to entire ecosystem processes.
PhD Positions:
- Soil food webs (supervised by Dr. Andrew Barnes at the University of Waikato):
- Focus: Sampling and constructing soil arthropod food webs and quantifying energy fluxes to investigate how warming alters interaction strengths and network resilience following a simulated drought.
- Requirements: Strong background in ecology with specialization in ecological network analysis and/or soil ecology, extensive experience in data analysis and/or modelling (R or other languages like Python), excellent communication and teamwork skills, and a strong desire to explore exciting questions in global change ecology.
- Microbes is action (supervised by Dr. Charlotte Alster at Lincoln University ):
- Focus: Evaluating trade-offs between growth yield and stress management of soil microbial communities (using functional laboratory assays and metagenomics) and testing of ecosystem-level resilience along the geothermal gradients.
- Requirements: Strong background in soil microbiology and ecosystem ecology, excellent communication and teamwork skills, and a passion for soil microbial ecology and understanding the effects of climate change. Experience with statistics is a plus.
Key Details:
– Duration: Three years
– Funding: Full scholarship with stipend
– Location: Lincoln University (Lincoln) or University of Waikato (Hamilton), New Zealand
– Review of applicants will begin on 1st March 2024
– Applicants must have a relevant Masters or Bachelors (with research-based honours thesis) degree
For any queries or further information, please feel free to contact me at andrew.barnes@waikato.ac.nz.
