The holders of the positions will investigate year-round seasonal (a)synchronies in plant and microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling in arctic terrestrial ecosystems, and how these are driven by environmental and community variation.

The two positions are part of a large interdisciplinary project that aims to understand and quantify how processes during the arctic winter may be decisive for overall feedbacks from arctic tundra to the global climate. Arctic ecosystems store large amounts of organic carbon in plants and soil. Uptake of carbon by arctic plants is strongly limited by their access to nutrients, especially nitrogen, due to competition by microbes. Year-round carbon and nitrogen balances thus depend the activities of plant and microbial communities and their seasonality.

This multidisciplinary project will involve a research team of about eleven senior and postdoctoral scientists, four PhD students and two technical staff. Together, we will advance basic knowledge of plant and microbial activities during the cold season. The project will further assess the environmental drivers and community traits that may be used to up-scale and predict effects of asynchronies on year-round carbon and nitrogen balances of tundra. The positions will be based in Abisko. More information can be found via the links above. We welcome all applications!