PhD Fellowships in Biological and Environmental Science in Finland

The Department of Biological and Environmental Science at the University of Jyvaskyla seeks applicants to two PhD students position focusing on a paleolimnological approach for examining carbon pathways in high latitude lake food webs. The positions will start in 2015 and be based in Jyvaskyla, Finland.

The objective of the applied PhD student's project is to improve our understanding of climatic controls on carbon transport from terrestrial sources to aquatic systems, ecological impacts of carbon-driven lake optics, and carbon utilization by different functional groups of aquatic fauna in a long-term temporal perspective and under natural climate fluctuations. The project will contribute to unravel the relationships between climate change and lake food web functioning in environmentally sensitive high latitude lakes, and provide information on natural fluctuations of lake functioning as a reference for future assessments.

The successful candidate will carry out paleolimnological research in high latitude lakes in Finnish Lapland and northern Canada.

Specifically, the PhD project will utilize spatial and temporal sedimentary datasets with the aims to examine species-environment relationships with a focus on carbon-driven lake properties, reconstruct past lake-water conditions related to terrestrial carbon input, and clarify the contributions of terrestrial and aquatic carbon sources to aquatic food webs. The research methods include microfossil analysis of aquatic invertebrates, paleoenvironmental modeling, and carbon stable isotope analysis. The PhD candidate will be part of the paleoaquatic research group and supervised by Dr. Liisa Nevalainen (Univ. Jyvaeskylae), Prof. Milla Rautio (Univ. Quebec Chicoutimi), and Dr. Tomi Luoto (Univ. Helsinki & Univ. Jyvaeskylae).

Applicants should have a Master's degree in Biology, Limnology, Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, or a closely related subject. 

Application deadline: 7 November 2014.

Additional information on the project, as well as application instructions, are available at:
https://www.jyu.fi/bioenv/en/phd-student-positions. 

For questions, please contact:
Liisa Nevalainen
Email: liisa.e.nevalainen@jyu.fi