A UiT Aurora Center - Now hiring multiple positions, see below for details
We are currently recruiting:
2 permanent positions as associate professor
3 postdocs
4 PhD fellows
See "News" section for announced positions
Goal: To further our understanding of the combined effect of humans, climate, and biota on northern ecosystem dynamics in the past, present, and future.
Subgoals:
Move toward multi-trophic level ecosystem reconstruction over the Holocene of terrestrial, aquatic, and coastal communities.
Expand the use of ecosystem genomics for human-environment interactions and lifeways.
Develop environmental DNA techniques for Arctic ecosystem and heritage management.
Build up a diverse, rigorous, & internationally leading research group in ecosystem genomics.
Provide a National facility for the analysis of eDNA from sediments and soils.
WP1: Method developments. WP2: Terrestrial and limnic communities. WP3: Coastal communities. WP4: Past human communities and environments. WP5: Synthesis of past communities, recommendation and tools for management.
PhD Fellow position 1 Genomic basis of eco-evolutionary responses to changing environments in arctic plant-herbivore systems Deadline 6th of April 2022
Genomic basis of eco-evolutionary responses to changing environments in arctic plant-herbivore systems
Ecosystem change at Kulivatnet since the end of the last ice age
Photo: Prof Anders Schomacker installing the sediment collection tube at the end of the modified percussion corer used to retrieve a continuous sequence of sediments from the bottom of Kulivatnet. Photo credit: Alexandra Rouillard
Monday, March 7th, 2022: Thanks to our volunteer transportation specialist from Vågnes, we quickly reached the lake and got an early start to our sediment coring operations. Through holes in the ice, we used a hand-held piston corer (see photo) suspended by a cable in the water above the sediment to hammer our way gently (yet effectively!) into the precious environmental archive. At Kulivatnet, we were able to collect over 5 m of sediments, which we expect represent up to 12,000 years of slowly accumulated environmental history. Through a range of techniques including radiocarbon dating and ancient environmental DNA analyses of the sediments, ArcEcoGen will explore change in the lake and terrestrial ecosystems (WP2) and peopling (WP4) over this period. Furthermore, the associated project PolarCH4ives will determine climate factors influencing the release of methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas, from the lake.
Thank you to our team from the UiT Department of Geosciences (PhD candidate Sofia Kjellman, postdoc Alexandra Rouillard and professor Anders Schomacker) for a most productive and fun day on the ice!