Ecology Postdoctoral Researchers

The Department of River Ecology and Conservation at Senckenberg in cooperation with the Faculty of Biology at the University of Duisburg-Essen jointly invite applications for 2 Ecology Postdoctoral Researchers.

Senckenberg Nature Research Centre

For over 200 years the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (SGN) represents one of the most relevant institutions investigating nature and its diversity. Currently, scientists from more than 40 countries across 12 locations in Germany conduct research in biodiversity, Earth system analysis and climate change. Following its mission to “analyze and document biodiversity in Earth system dynamics – to serve science and society” Senckenberg stands for curiosity-driven and application-oriented collectionsbased research.

The Project

Over the past years, they have compiled one of the most comprehensive marine and freshwater biodiversity time series across Europe including macroinvertebrates, macrophytes, algae, fish and plankton from approx. 25,000 sampling locations and 25 European countries. They also host a large data set of > 30,000 terrestrial insect species. Additionally, they have access to accompanying environmental data. These data sets provide a unique opportunity to address a broad variety of fundamental and applied ecological questions in fields like metacommunity theory, time series analyses, multiple stressors responses, invasive species, ecological communities or conservation depending on candidate interests.

The position is partly embedded in two large EU-funded projects, namely the MARCO-BOLO project: MARine COastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations and the new Biodiversity Meets Data (BMD) project, which will start on March 1st, 2025. This last project will provide a toolbox, equipped with a suite of Virtual Research Environments (VREs). These are co-designed with the stakeholders to deliver biodiversity assessments, biodiversity trend analyses, identification of drivers of change, and projections to future climatic and land cover scenarios at local, regional, national and European scales. To this end, we will develop a suite of thematic VREs that allow an easy-to-use application of models on available and harmonized biodiversity and environmental data. Both projects provide access to a wide range of spatial and temporal biodiversity and environmental data. They also provide a fantastic opportunity to become part of European networks of established researchers, postdocs, and graduate students working with monitoring data.

Your tasks

  • Analyzing spatial and temporal biodiversity,
  • Accompanied environmental data to elucidate spatial patterns and temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and drivers thereof,
  • Contribute to the research of the MARCO-BOLO and BMD projects,
  • Conduct research on global change impacts on biodiversity within the framework of other projects in the department (i.e. restoration ecology, multiple stressor analyses, long-term ecological research),
  • Development of VREs,
  • Data analysis, preparation of manuscripts and reports,
  • Mentoring graduate students.

Your profile

  • PhD in Ecology or a related field (ideally enthusiastic ecologists with backgrounds in freshwater, marine or terrestrial ecosystems),
  • Solid background in (macro-) ecology and zoology (preferably invertebrates or fish),
  • Background in metacommunities, and/or analysis of ecological time series,
  • Advanced skills in statistical analyses, preferably using R,
  • Strong track record of international scientific publications,
  • Excellent written and oral communication and project presentation skills,

Application details

Salary and benefits are according to a public service position in Germany (TV-H E13, 100%; part-time (at least 75%)). The contract should ideally start around December 1st, 2024 and will initially be restricted to 2 years with a possible extension.

Please send your application until September, 15th 2024, preferably by e-mail: recruiting@senckenberg.de (attachment in a single pdf document), mentioning the reference of this position (Ref. #04-24003) and include

  • a letter outlining your suitability for the post,
  • a detailed CV,
  • contact details of 2 references,
  • a list of publications and acquired funding

Applications can also be submitted via the online application tool. For scientific enquiries please get in contact with Prof. Dr. Peter Haase, E-Mail: peter.haase@senckenberg.de.