The PhD position is at the Departament of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Spain, and the Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia, Solsona, Spain. Expected starting date is October 2016. The application deadline is June 30, 2016.
Project title: Evaluation of fungal diversity and productivity and their influence in generating forest ecosystem services
Fungi represent one of the most diverse kingdoms on our planet and are key to the maintenance of forest ecosystems. The ecological functions of fungal communities include decomposition and nutrient cycling, symbiosis with living plants, and pathogenism with plants and animals. Complementing these important fuctions, fungi
are increasingly recognized for their contribution to economic, social and cultural values. With the widespread increase in societal expectations for ecosystem services, new formulas are needed for forest management that maximize the value of forest fungi. However, the growing recognition and interest for the fungi in forest ecosystems
has not been accompanied by a parallel increase in the scientific knowledge and techniques to study fungal populations, temporal dynamics or the influence of fungal diversity on the provision of different forest ecosystem services.
The aim of the PhD is to contribute to identifying and understading the factors that affect fungal diversity and productivity in forest ecosystems, providing a scientific foundation to develop tools oriented toward sustainable forest management and the ecosystem services associated with fungal productivity an diversity.
The candidate will conduct the PhD thesis within a consolidated and internationally acknowledged research group with a strong background on modeling fungal and forest dynamics and fungal-oriented policy making. The scientific work may be partly based on the set of permanent plots monitored by the research team since 1995, which
constitutes one of the most valuable datasets worldwide for studying fungal diversity and productivity in forest ecosystems. The candidate may also contribute to data gathering (fruitbodies and mycelia) and monitoring of permanent plots in relation to the PhD topic.
Supervision: This research project will be developed between the Departament of Non-wood Forest Products (Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia) and the Department of Crop and Forest Sciences at the University of Lleida. The supervisors will be Dr. José Antonio Bonet, Dr. Sergio de Miguel and Dr. Juan Martínez de Aragón.