About this role
PhD position: Integrating trait diversity into ecosystem models Contact Person: Dedmer Van de Waal [email protected] Droevendaalsesteeg 10 6708 PB Wageningen +31 (0) 317 47 34 00 Send a message Category Position Closing date: Closing date: 20 September 2026 What you will be doing We are recruiting a talented, enthusiastic, and collaborative PhD candidate to investigate how phytoplankton trait diversity affects ecosystem processes. Specifically, the PhD candidate will integrate diversity of phytoplankton resource acquisition traits into the mechanistic ecosystem model PCLake and assess consequences for ecosystem structure and functioning. General project description This PhD position is part of the SNF-Lead Agency funded BILMo (Biodiversity Inspired Lake Modelling) project, which aims to upgrade different mechanistic lake models to 1) predict diversity and community composition responses to combined gradients of warming and changes in resource availability (light, nitrogen and phosphorus), and 2) improve predictions of ecosystem processes by including the impacts of phytoplankton diversity and composition. The project focuses on five interlinked objectives related to the above-mentioned aims. The research spans field observations, laboratory experiments and mechanistic models. The project team consists of two PhD candidates and three Postdoc positions hired on the BILMo project and involved researchers including Dr. Anita Narwani (EAWAG; coordinator), Dr. Keisuke Inomura (University of Rhode Island), Prof. Damien Bouffard (EAWAG), Prof. Dedmer van de Waal (NIOO-KNAW) and Dr. Mandy Velthuis (Wageningen University). What you will be contributing As a PhD candidate you will contribute to improving our understanding of the interplay between phytoplankton traits and lake ecosystem functioning. Specifically, you will determine to what extent (phyto)plankton inter- and intraspecific trait diversity affects the bioma...