PhD project offered by the IMPRS-gBGC in July 2023

Microbial community processes in changing Arctic permafrost ecosystems and the relevance for gas exchange

Manja Marz , Janina Rahlff , Mathias Göckede , Judith Vogt

Project description

Ancient (millions of years old) but still viable bacteria and archaea exist in permafrost ecosystems and maintain physiological activity after thaw. Viruses modulate the metabolic functions of their bacterial and archaeal hosts by providing auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs). Hence, microbes and viruses interact with their biotic and abiotic environment and influence biogeochemical processes in permafrost ecosystems, which are highly impacted by global warming.
This project aims to investigate how the influence of environmental perturbations (e.g., burning tundra, lake formation and drainage, ground subsidence) are reflected in changes of microbial communites from terrestrial and/or aquatic ecosystems within the permafrost landscape. Furthermore, the role of microbial communities and their predicted metabolic activity to influence gas exchange processes across air-water and air-soil interfaces in thermokarst lakes and permafrost soils, respectively, will be explored.

Research program

Explore the microbial community composition (abundance and diversity) as well as the microbial and viral metabolic role in Arctic permafrost ecosystems in relation to typical environmental perturbations by using -omics approaches and link changes in microbial communities and metabolic potential to gas exchange fluxes.

Working group

The successful PhD candidate will join the junior research group of Dr. Janina Rahlff embedded in the RNA Bioinformatics & High Throughput Analysis group of Prof. Dr. Manja Marz at the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena. Associated molecular laboratories are accessible via the Fritz Lipmann Institute e.V. (FLI). The student will benefit from training and networking opportunities offered by the European Virus Bioinformatics Center and be affiliated to the Jena School for Microbial Communication, a graduate school offering a comprehensive education programme to train hard skills and soft skills. A close collaboration with the European Research Council Synergy Project Q-ARCTIC group, which is part of the Department of Biogeochemical Signals at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, will be established.

Requirements

Applications to the IMPRS-gBGC are open to well-motivated and highly-qualified students from all countries. Prerequisites for this PhD project are:

a Master degree in bio(geo)chemistry, environmental science, (geo-)ecology, biology, soil or aquatic science or other disciplines related to environmental sciences
willingness to conduct field work in Arctic permafrost ecosystems (like the Canadian Arctic, North of Sweden):

microbiological sampling of soils and aquatic surface films from lakes to explore microbial consortia
employ gas chambers in soils and lakes to measure gas fluxes

additional lab skills that would be advantageous

molecular techniques (RNA/DNA extraction)
micro-respiration experiments with natural microbial communities

computational skills (essential or strong affinity)

skills to process and analyze metagenomic datasets and predict the metabolic potential of microbes and viruses (using BASH, R) are a strong asset
statistical analysis

Interest in combining microbiology and biogeochemistry, interest in handling large bioinformatic datasets
Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required, knowledge of German is an asset

The Max Planck Society (MPS) strives for gender equality and diversity. The MPS aims to increase the proportion of women in areas where they are underrepresented. Women are therefore explicitly encouraged to apply. We welcome applications from all fields. The Max Planck Society has set itself the goal of employing more severely disabled people. Applications from severely disabled persons are expressly encouraged.