About this role
The position A position as PhD Fellow in the project "Ancient sedimentary DNA of Freshwater Fish and Ecological Interactions in Europe over the Last Two Millennial" is available at the University Museum , UiT The Arctic University of Norway. The position is for a period of four years. The nominal length of the PhD programme is three years. The fourth year is distributed as 25 % each year and will consist of teaching and other duties, such as secondments and interactions with the industry or the public sector. The objective of the position is to complete research training to the level of a doctoral degree. Admission to the PhD programme is a prerequisite for employment, and the programme period starts on commencement of the position. The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. There will also be extensive fieldwork in NW Europe. The candidate may also undertake a research stay abroad for up to 3 months with one or more of the project collaborators or another relevant organization. You must be able to start in the position in Tromsø within a reasonable time after receiving the offer. Affiliation This position is attached to the Research Groups of Natural Sciences and Archaeology, the ArcEcoGEN Aurora Research Centre , and the Freshwater Ecology Group at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology at UiT. Natural Sciences is responsible for developing and maintaining scientific collections of objects (animals, plants, fossils and minerals) as well as public outreach, including the Tromsø Arctic Alpine Botanical Garden. Archaeology is responsible for the archaeological collections at the Tromsø University Museum as well as cultural heritage management and research-based excavations in Northern Norway. All excavated archaeological finds are incorporated into the existing museum collections. Combined the research areas of Botany and Archaeology have a permanent staff of approximately 21, of which 16 are in academic positions. At the moment, 10 PhD students and 4 postdoctoral researchers are connected to the research area and ArcEcoGEN Centre. The departments have laboratories for environmental archaeology, modern and ancient DNA analyses. These labs will be upgraded significantly in 2025 with full sample integration and robotisation of many sedaDNA processes, making them world class in this area of research. Natural Sciences currently involved in three large projects: “MEMELAND”, “IceAgent” and “Norwegian Barcode of Life”. The latter includes full genome sequencing of the entire Norwegian flora. The Archaeology Group has 5 permanent academic research positions and a variable number of field archaeologists in technical positions. The primary focus of ongoing research is on prehistoric and historic archaeology within the region and comparative regions. The Freshwater Ecology Group (FEG) of the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology conducts research on aquatic systems at high latitudes. Focusing on invertebrates, fish, and parasites, the FEG uses experimental approaches, long-term time series, and modelling approaches to better understand ecological interactions from the interspecific to the community level within and across ecosystems from the catchment to the coast. The project The successful candidate will work on the project "Ancient sedimentary DNA of Freshwater Fish and Ecological Interactions in Europe over the Last Two Millennia". This PhD project is attached to the ERC Synergy Project ‘MEMELAND’ (Molecular Ecology of European Medieval Landscape) at the University Museum of the Arctic University of Norway (PI Tony Brown). The successful candidate will join a multi-university team who are coring over 100 lakes in NW Europe to reveal ecosystem changes related to agricultural intensification over the last 2000 years. Whilst the main focus is terrestrial agriculture and its effects on biodiversity an additional theme is effects on freshwater systems including lakes and rivers. We are also interested in aquaculture both in purpose created environments (e.g. fishponds) and through river and lake stocking. Specific areas of investigation will include a) changes in fish faunas for selected sites, b) examine the causes of these changes and relate to vegetation, climate and archaeological data, c) investigate the use of fish parasite sedaDNA as an additional methodology, d) trial other primers for fish and e) use non-amplicon sequencing on selected sites and samples. This PhD project will build on work already done by the Research Centre using general primers (16S) which have revealed surprisingly high fish diversity in sites in the UK and Norway. However, the full suite of lakes from across NW Europe will be available for this project. This position is at Tromsø but the candidate will be working with the teams in Salzburg (chronology, geochemistry and lake coring), eawag, Zurich (lipids), University of Oxford (archaeology and archaeobotany) and Charles University Prague (spatial modelling). The research outcomes will contribute to resilience and transformation in the Middle-high latitudes of Europe and operationalize Sustainable Development Goals. Contact For further information about the position, please contact: Tony G Brown, e-mail: [email protected] Christian Selbach, e-mail: [email protected] Qualifications This position requires: A master's degree in subject relevant to the research description. Qualification with a master’s degree is required before commencement in the position. If you are near completion of your master’s degree, you may still apply provided that you submit all requested documents. A master's thesis Documented fluency in English. Nordic applicants can document their English capabilities by attaching their high school diploma. The applicants must present a project description outlining the academic basis of the PhD project. The project description shall not exceed 4 pages, literature references included. It must include a description of the theme, research question(s)