Application deadline: 15.2.2012
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The Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research (GEOMAR) seeks to recruit a PhD student in Evolutionary Biology. The PhD student will be funded by a German science foundation (DFG) grant, entitled "/Interactive effects of environmental change and host-parasite co-evolution on the ecological speciation of sticklebacks/".

The project:

We aim at testing experimentally the relative contribution of natural and sexual selection on the process of ecological speciation using the three-spined stickleback as model organism. Both abiotic (eutrophication) and biotic (parasitism) pressures will be manipulated in large scale mesocosm experiments and ecological (mate choice) and genomic/transcriptomic changes will be followed over generations.

The project is part of the Lead Agency Program and will be performed in strong collaboration with Dr. Blake Matthews' lab (EAWAG, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland).

The candidates should:

- Be highly motivated.

- Have a master degree (or equivalent) in Evolutionary biology, Animal biology, Genetics or any related fields.

- Be interested in host-parasite coevolution, evolution of mating strategies, speciation, genomics and evolutionary consequences of climate change.

The hosting lab:

The GEOMAR is an international research institute affiliated to the University of Kiel (Germany). The working language of the department is English. The successful student will join the junior research group of Dr. Christophe Eizaguirre, which is part of a larger department led by Prof. Thorsten Reusch.

The research activities in the department are diverse and include host-parasite interactions, conservation genetics, fishery and fishery induced evolution.

The starting date for the PhD student is flexible, but a start in mid-March, 2012 is preferred. The position is offered for 3 years and follows the standard German regulations. Potential candidates are encouraged to contact Dr. Eizaguirre before submitting a full application. Applications should include a cover letter, a CV, and names of two academic references. Copies of prior publications or theses will also be considered if made available via PDF.

The GEOMAR is an equal right employer and therefore encourages applications from all possible candidates meeting the academic prerequisites.

Please submit your application by 15th Feb 2012 as a single PDF file to
Dr. Christophe Eizaguirre (ceizaguirre@ifm-geomar.de).

For further information:

please visit GEOMAR's website (http://www.geomar.de/en/)

contact Dr. Christophe Eizaguirre
(http://www.ifm-geomar.de/index.php?id=ceizaguirre&L=1)

Project summary:

How human-caused environmental change affects the ecological and evolutionary processes that create and maintain biodiversity is a pressing question in biology. The eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems is a widespread and ongoing problem that has manifold consequences for sustaining critical ecosystem services, including water quality and biodiversity. The loading of nutrients (e.g. phosphorus and nitrogen) to freshwater environments not only affects their chemical and physical condition, but also influences the nature of interactions between species such as host-parasite interactions which generate local adaptation patterns and may even lead to speciation. Pervasive effects of eutrophication can alter selection regimes and therefore, cause unexpected evolutionary changes in populations over short time scales. Here, using three-spined stickleback as a model system, we focus on how the interactive effects of nutrient loading and parasites might drive rapid evolutionary changes and breakdown of local adaptation. First, using an intensive field survey along a lake productivity gradient, we will test how lake productivity co-varies with i) parasite diversity and community composition, ii) host genotype diversity, and iii) host immune system function and gene expression- testing for local adaptation of host and parasite populations. Second, using a large scale experiment in mesocosms (42 X 1000 L), we will test how contrasting natural selection regimes, resulting from orthogonal combinations of parasites and nutrient levels, can affect phenotypically and genotypically stickleback adaptive abilities. In this experiment, we focus on phenotypic and genetic traits that have been implicated in mate selection, so that we can test if the contrasting selection regimes caused by manipulating nutrients and parasites (antagonistically) synergistically might contribute to population divergence, and play a role in (reverse) speciation. This work will shed light on how natural and sexual selection are mediated by parasites and environmental conditions, and how these processes jointly respond to divergent environments and affect the progress towards speciation.