Ph.D. assistantship, Impacts of climate change on boreal forest soil organic matter biogeochemistry

A Ph.D. graduate assistantship is available for a keen and motivated student interested in research and training centered around understanding the impact of climate change on boreal forest soil carbon reservoirs. This assistantship is available as part of an NSERC Strategic Project research team made up of foreign collaborators (Drs. Ronald Benner at the University of South Carolina, Sharon Billings at the University of Kansas, and Martin Moroni at Forestry Tasmania in Australia), provincial and Canadian Forest Service partners (Dr Kate Edwards-Atlantic Forestry Center). The project is focused on exploiting the established Newfoundland and Labrador Boreal Ecosystem Latitudinal Transect (NLBELT) with four sites located in western Newfoundland and southern Labrador. The project is currently focused on the potential alterations in microbial transformations of soil organic matter (SOM) and losses of relatively slow turnover pools of SOM that may occur with warming along this boreal forest transect. To isolate the potential impact of warming while maintaining an ability to apply the results to intact boreal forests, our group has been conducting investigations of soils along the NL-BELT and combining these with manipulative warming experiments to develop biogeochemical indicators of soil responses to increasing temperature. It is anticipated that this Ph.D. student will focus on the alteration of chemical and isotopic composition of plant and microbial biomarkers in order to assess the microbial mechanisms associated with variation in SOM pools with warming and across this boreal forest latitudinal gradient.

Experience with soil microbial ecology, biogeochemistry and/or organic geochemistry particularly at the M.Sc. level will be important. Consideration of students seeking a M.Sc. degree will only be considered in cases where a strong background of experience in microbial ecology and/or organic geochemistry is demonstrated (e.g. successful B.Sc. honors thesis).

Applicants should be willing and able to conduct field research at remote study sites for weeks at a time. This assistantship will be available as early as January 2012 through the Department of Earth Sciences or the Ph.D. program in Environmental Sciences at Memorial University ( www.mun.ca/ ).

Memorial is the largest university in Atlantic Canada. As the province‚s only university, Memorial plays an integral role in the educational life of Newfoundland and Labrador ( www.newfoundlandlabrador.com ). Offering a diverse set of undergraduate and graduate programs for almost 18,000 students, Memorial provides a distinctive and stimulating environment for learning in St. John‚s ( www.stjohns.ca/index.jsp ), a very safe, friendly city with great historical charm, a vibrant cultural life, and easy access to a wide range of outdoor activities.

Please direct inquires or send applications, including letter of interest and detailed curriculum vitae (including contact information for 3 references), to:
Dr. Susan Ziegler
Canada Research Chair in Environmental Science
Department of Earth Sciences
Memorial University
St. John‚s, NL A1B 3X5
Canada
709.864.2669
sziegler@mun.ca

Applications will be considered until November 28, 2011.