Post Doctoral Researcher, Biology

Department: Biology
Vacancy ID: 044183
Closing Date: 14-Oct-2026

Maynooth University is committed to a strategy in which the primary University goals of excellent research and scholarship and outstanding education are interlinked and equally valued.

We are seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Research Ireland funded “Future Forests” project.

The Project

Increasing tree diversity in planted forests can enhance ecosystem services such as wood production and carbon sequestration. Ambitious afforestation plans form a major part of Irelands climate mitigation strategy. Diversification of Irish forests is also a key component of national forest policy. However, we know little about how mixed forests will function under future climates. In a novel field-based open-top chamber experiment, the Future Forests project is assessing the performance of tree seedling monocultures and mixtures under elevated CO2. This experiment provides a platform for testing mechanisms controlling responses of sapling monocultures and mixtures to climate change e.g., altered phenology, physiological limitations to establishment/productivity. In addition, the project is using long-term forest inventory data from European temperate forests to assess the relationship between tree diversity, growth, and mortality of trees under global change.

The Role

Increasing tree diversity in planted forests can enhance ecosystem services such as wood production and carbon sequestration. Ambitious afforestation plans form a major part of Irelands climate mitigation strategy. Diversification of Irish forests is also a key component of national forest policy. However, we know little about how mixed forests will function under future climates. In a novel field-based open-top chamber experiment, the Future Forests project is assessing the performance of tree seedling monocultures and mixtures under elevated CO2. This experiment provides a platform for testing mechanisms controlling responses of sapling monocultures and mixtures to climate change e.g., altered phenology, physiological limitations to establishment/productivity. In addition, the project is using long-term forest inventory data from European temperate forests to assess the relationship between tree diversity, growth, and mortality of trees under global change.

The researcher will play a leading role in assessing above- and below-ground physiological responses of saplings grown in monoculture and mixtures to elevated CO2. Measurements will include leaf gas analysis, chlorophyll fluorescence, leaf traits, and sapling biomass. The researcher will also contribute to an analysis of long-term inventory data from European forests to assess the relationship between diversity, growth, and mortality of trees under the environmental change (elevated CO2, temperature, drought) of the last 40 years. The researcher will contribute to the wider project and work with collaborators at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, the Smithsonian Institution, and Kyoto University.

Salary:

Post-Doctoral Researcher (Level 1): €47, 273 – €53,925 p.a. (1-6 points)

Appointments will be made in accordance with public sector pay provisions.

Closing Date:

23:30hrs (local Irish time) on Wednesday, 14th of October.

Applications must be submitted by the closing date and time specified above. Any applications which are still in progress at the closing time on the specified closing date will be cancelled automatically by the system.

Late applications will not be accepted.

Maynooth University is an equal opportunities employer

The position is subject to the Statutes of the University