PhD Position at the Department of Biology

(Part-time 50 %, E 13 TV-L)

"Pole to Pole exchange: Climate facilitated cyanobacterial parasite pressure & mat ecosystem response" as part of the DFG Priority Program "Antarctic Research with Comparable Investigations in Arctic Sea Ice Areas" SPP1158. Reference Number 2022/012. This position is available as of August 1st, 2022 or by agreement. The anticipated duration of the project will be three years. The University of Konstanz is one of eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany. Since 2007 it has been successful in the German Excellence Initiative and its follow-up programme, the Excellence Strategy. This project investigates the possible exchange of cyanobacteria, cyanobacteria parasitic fungi and viruses and the impact of climate change on the potential establishment of more temperate tolerant cyanobacteria and their parasites endemic to the Arctic (microbial xeno-species) in Antarctica, thereby changing the Antarctic cyanobacterial mat communities. Our previous findings showed a change in species diversity and cyanobacterial toxin production upon exposure of Antarctic cyanobacterial mats to increased temperatures. This project has four major objectives: 1.) to determine whether old (Scotts expedition 1902) cyanobacterial mats and more recent cyanobacterial mats from McMurdo, Byers and Rothera (1990, 1999/2000, 2010, 2021/2022) show a distinct time-scale dependent presence of Arctic microbial xeno-species (Historical descriptive study); 2.) to compare cyanobacteria, and their parasitic fungi and viruses, found in Arctic locations (Svalbard or Iceland) to locations in the Antarctic Peninsula; 3.) to determine whether temperature increase in situ (Rothera and Byers) via plexiglas covers for 21 days will provide for cyanobacterial diversity change, increased fungal and viral parasitism, and toxin production, and 4.) whether the in situ experiments can be replicated in the laboratory cold rooms with cyanobacterial mats with/without additional exposure to fungi and viruses from Arctic cyanobacterial mats and/or increased temperatures (Mechanistic studies). Cyanobacterial mat diversity, fungal and viral presence will be determined using Illumina (16S, ITS and G20 genes) and shotgun sequencing. Fungal and viral abundance will be determined using ddPCR, while monitoring and comparison of cyanotoxin content will be carried out via PCR, ELISA and UPLC-MS/MS. Questions can be directed to the Secretary of the Chair of Human and Environmental Toxicology via E-mail:
pia.zettler@uni-konstanz.de. We look forward to receiving your application (include your CV, your Masters Degree/a transcript of current study status, a motivation letter and two letters of reference or reference contacts) April 30th, 2022 via our Online Application Portal. The call remains open until the position is filled. The University of Konstanz is committed to ensuring an environment that provides equal opportunities and promotes diversity as well as a good balance between university and family life. As an equal opportunity employer, we strive to increase the number of women working in research and teaching. We also support working couples through our dual career programme (https://www.uni-konstanz.de/en/equalopportunities/family/dualcareer/). Persons with disabilities are explicitly encouraged to apply. They will be given preference if appropriately qualified (contact + 49 7531 88– 4016).