Research Associate (m/f/d) in the field of forest regeneration

The University of Bayreuth is a research-oriented university with internationally competitive and interdisciplinary profile fields in research and teaching. At the Chair of Plant Ecology (Prof. Dr. Steven Higgins) the following temporary position is available, starting in January 2025

for the duration of 3 years. The place of work is Bayreuth.

The project:

Increased mortality of mature trees is the most evident sign of the drastic change in Germany’s forest ecosystems. However, the character of the forests of the future will not only be determined by mortality processes, but also by the regenerating species that replace the dead individuals.  This BMEL/FNR/ project aims to develop a protocol for monitoring changes in seed production, seedling growth and ingrowth in forest stands and thereby quantify the effects of climatic factors and herbivory on these rates. We will address the problem that high variance in regeneration rates has made it difficult to statistically link variance in regeneration to climate and herbivore impacts.

Your role:

You will develop an improved forest regeneration monitoring protocol using an existing monitoring network (from Passau into the Bavarian Forest) setup by the LWF (Bayerische Landesanstalt für Wald und Forstwirtschaft). Your role will be to collect regeneration related data at these sites, run a greenhouse experiment examining drought and shade interactions, analyse the data and communicate the findings to forest practitioners.

We seek a scientist (m/f/d) who wishes to combine field work in plant and forest ecology with hierarchical Bayesian statistical analyses and to communicate the methodological approach to practitioners.

Your profile:

A MSc or PhD in ecology, forestry, geo-ecology or related field. Good organizational, writing and communication skills. Fluency in German and English (written and spoken).

We offer an established network of monitoring plots, established workflows for running greenhouse experiments and motivated research team (Steven Higgins and Lisa Hülsmann from the University of Bayreuth; Markus Blaschke from the LWF; Jim Clark from Duke University; a field technician who will be appointed to support the project).

The salary is based on pay grade 13 TV-L. We will consider applications from candidates wishing to pursue doctoral studies and candidates who already have a doctoral degree.

Supervision: Prof. Dr. Steven Higgins (Plant Ecology, University of Bayreuth) and Prof. Dr. Lisa Hülsmann (Ecosystem Analysis and Simulation, University of Bayreuth).

The University of Bayreuth appreciates the diversity of its employees as an enrichment and is expressly committed to the goal of equal opportunities for all genders. Women are strongly encouraged to apply. Applicants with children are very welcome. The University of Bayreuth is a member of the Best Practice Club "Familie in der Hochschule e.V.", and has successfully participated in the HRK audit "Internationalization of the University". Persons with severe disabilities will be given preferential consideration if equally qualified.

Please apply online with meaningful application documents (letter of motivation, CV and references) until 15 December 2024 stating the keyword "forest regeneration“ via our application portal of the University of Bayreuth. The documents will be deleted after the position has been filled in accordance with the requirements of data protection.

For further information please contact:

Prof. Dr. Steven Higgins (Steven.Higgins@uni-bayreuth.de, Tel.: +49 (0)921- 55 2800)