Postdoc in long-term changes in plant diversity

Official occupation: Post doc., naturvidenskab og teknik. Employment conditions: Almindelige vilkår. Employer CVR: 29979812.

Primary career market

Public Sector, Education & Impact (occupation evidence). We invite applications for a 2-year postdoctoral position focused on understanding the drivers of long-term changes in Danish plant diversity. The aim of the research is to gain a deep understanding of biodiversity change over time and its ecological drivers, from recent decades to centuries.

Understanding which species, functional groups and ecosystem processes have been lost in recent centuries or deeper in time constitutes the best cure against shifting baseline syndrome. You will assess changes in occupancy of vascular plant species in Denmark on a centennial time scale and identify the environmental drivers underlying these changes.

The project is based on fine-grain gridded biodiversity data from around 1930 and 2010 to quantify biodiversity changes through time. Potential drivers will be assessed from a broad range of historical and contemporary data sources, including topographical maps, land-cover models, agricultural statistics and other land-use information, and traits of winner and loser species.

You will work in an interdisciplinary setting, in which understanding of plant ecology is essential1 …