PhD position: Integrating trait diversity into ecosystem models
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Netherlands
- Institution
- Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
- Country
- Netherlands
- Position type
- PhD
- Application deadline
- 20 September 2026
- Funding
- Fully funded position
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About this position
Job description
We are recruiting a talented, enthusiastic, and collaborative PhD candidate to investigate how phytoplankton trait diversity affects ecosystem processes. Specifically, the PhD candidate will integrate diversity of phytoplankton resource acquisition traits into the mechanistic ecosystem model PCLake and assess consequences for ecosystem structure and functioning.
General project description
This PhD position is part of the SNF-Lead Agency funded BILMo (Biodiversity Inspired Lake Modelling) project, which aims to upgrade different mechanistic lake models to 1) predict diversity and community composition responses to combined gradients of warming and changes in resource availability (light, nitrogen and phosphorus), and 2) improve predictions of ecosystem processes by including the impacts of phytoplankton diversity and composition.
The project focuses on five interlinked objectives related to the above-mentioned aims. The research spans field observations, laboratory experiments and mechanistic models. The project team consists of two PhD candidates and three Postdoc positions hired on the BILMo project and involved researchers including Dr. Anita Narwani (EAWAG; coordinator), Dr. Keisuke Inomura (University of Rhode Island), Prof. Damien Bouffard (EAWAG), Prof. Dedmer van de Waal (NIOO-KNAW) and Dr. Mandy Velthuis (Wageningen University).
Apply directly to Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
Emerging Scholars Council is not the employer and does not recruit for this position. It is advertised by Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and your application goes to them. We help students prepare and strengthen their applications.
Go to the official application page →Applications close 20 September 2026.