Doctoral Researcher in Biodiversity change

The Faculty of Science at the University of Turku invites applications for a doctoral researcher position at the Department of Biology. The position is fully funded 3-years, and we will support efforts to obtain additional funding. Employment begins in June 2025 at the earliest, and no later than 1 of August 2025.

We are seeking a highly motivated project doctoral researcher to investigate large scale patterns of biodiversity change in Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). The position is funded by the Research Council of Finland project “SynthBioChange - Harnessing global data on Lepidoptera to unravel biodiversity change”. The overarching aim of SynthBioChange is to reveal the patterns and mechanisms of biodiversity change across ecological and spatial scales. This will be achieved by leveraging existing databases and using a combination of modelling approaches and synthesis to systematically quantify change across multiple biodiversity dimensions (taxonomic, functional and genetic), for populations, species and communities, and from local to global scales. Combining these approaches under a unified framework will elucidate the patterns of vulnerability and resilience to global change for this mega-diverse insect group.

The PhD project contributes to this overall goal. The successful candidate is expected to benefit from and collaborate with other team members, which also includes a postdoc, as well as with the extended network of collaborators within SynthBioChange.

Job description

In the BioChange Lab we investigate how biodiversity is changing by combining large-scale analyses of long-term observations, aiming to build solutions to alleviate the consequences of global change for ecosystems and societies. We are looking for an enthusiastic doctoral researcher with a strong interest in biodiversity change and ecological dynamics. The ideal candidate has a background in community ecology, macroecology and/or global change, and a research profile including ecological modelling skills. The project researcher / doctoral researcher will analyse large datasets of abundance time series to investigate changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of butterflies and moths across space and time. The project aims to further investigate how environmental drivers impact those changes. Thus, experience in investigating species and/or community responses to e.g. climate and land-use would be considered an advantage. The doctoral researcher will design their own research questions within the scope of the overall project according to their interests and expertise. The doctoral researcher will work under the supervision of Assistant Professor Laura Antão.

Working as a doctoral researcher

The doctoral researcher is expected to:

1. advance the research project together with the project team;
2. conduct doctoral studies and independent research work leading to a PhD thesis within 4 years;
3. write scientific papers aimed at international peer-reviewed journals;
4. contribute to teaching duties (maximum 5% of working time).