[Pollinator] Ph.D. opportunity in pollination, Sweden

[David Inouye]

Date: 	Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:05:17 +0100
From: 	Riccardo Bommarco<Riccardo.Bommarco at ekol.slu.se>

Dear Colleague
Please forward to potential candidates this
announcement for a PhD-position on "Mitigating decline
of wild plant pollination in agricultural landscapes"
at the Center for Environmental and Climate Research
at Lund University, Sweden.
Sorry about cross-posting
Riccardo

Announcement:
In English
http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?
id=24914&Dnr=378311&Type=EU

In Swedish
http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=22598&Dnr=378311&Type=S

POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Type of employment: Limit of tenure, 4 years
Extent: 100 %
Location: Center for Environmental and Climate
Research, Environmental Science, Lund
First day of employment: As soon as possible
Official Records Number: NPA 2011/54

Job assignments
Project title: Mitigating decline of wild plant
pollination in agricultural landscapes.

This PhD project is part of a multidisciplinary
research program that will investigate ways agri-
environmental measures may best be used to preserve
wild plant pollination in agricultural landscapes.
Pollinators have faced serious declines in farmland
during the past centuries and there are fears that
crop pollination may be at risk. Less focus has been
on consequences for pollination of wild plants.
However, pollinator declines may be one reason for the
decline of many plants in farmland.

This project will focus on the importance of
pollinators for wild plant pollination in farmed
landscapes and on measures to mitigate the declines of
pollinators and wild plant pollination. The project
will determine if there is parallel variation in
pollinator communities and pollination success of
focal plant species. In particular, we will focus on
the consequences of changes in community composition
of pollinators, e.g. through spill-over effects from
agriculturally subsidised generalist pollinators into
conservation areas. Furthermore, use of feral
pollinators is one way to mitigate effects of loss of
the ecosystem service crop pollination; here we will
study if this has consequences also for the
pollination of wild plants.

The work will range from landscape-wide surveys of
plants and pollinators to detailed experiments on the
dependency of wild plants on insect pollination and
consequences of community composition for wild plant
pollination. An important part of the project will be
to evaluate the possible consequences of agri-
environment schemes (and other agri-environmental
measures) on pollinators and subsequently on wild
plant pollination, to propose cost-efficient ways to
mitigate deterioration of wild plant pollination in
agricultural landscapes.

The project is a collaboration with the Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, and
will link to the collaboration with the foremost
pollinator ecologists in the European project STEP-
Status and Trends of European Pollinators (www.step-
project.net).

Eligibility/Entry Requirements
Basic eligibility to education at PhD level requires a
university exam at advanced level, with fulfilled
course requirements of at least 240 university credits
(högskolepoäng), of which at least 60 should be at
advanced level. Highest priority is given applicants
with a masters degree in environmental science,
biology or similar (e.g. agronomy). Courses in
ecology, conservation biology and GIS are considered a
merit. Driving license is required. Good ability to
plan own studies and to understand ecological theory
are important skills. The applicant must be able to
work both individually and in team, be able to start
collaborations and be prepared for flexible working
time.

Basis of Assessment
Regulations concerning appointment as a full doctoral
student can be found in SFS 1998:80. Those who hold a
scholarship must first be accepted for postgraduate
studies. The candidates will be selected from among
the qualified applicants based on their ability to
carry out postgraduate studies. In addition to
pursuing postgraduate studies, the doctoral student
may also perform other duties - including research,
teaching and administration according to the specific
regulations.

For further information please contact:
Henrik Smith, Professor
+46 46 222 93 79
Henrik.Smith at zooekol.lu.se

Labour union
SACO: Mats Cedervall
+46 46 2227516
Mats.Cedervall at eit.lth.se

OFR/S: Rita Nilsson
+46 46 2229362
st at st.lu.se

Last Day of Applying
2011-03-17