We are recruiting a PhD student to be a part of the Norwegian Centre for Arctic Ecosystem Genomics (ArcEcoGen) at the Arctic University Museum, UiT, Tromso, Norway and "Changing Arctic" transdisciplinary Research School at the UiT. UiT Aurora Center- ArcEcoGen: https://uit.no/research/arcecogen Website for the research school: https://uit.no/research/changingarctic More about the PhD project: https://uit.no/research/changingarctic/project?pid=837314 ArcEcoGen centre focuses on the combined effect of humans, climate, and biota on northern ecosystem dynamics in the past, present, and future using environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques. The largest impact of climate change currently seen on arctic vegetation is the northwards expansion of shrub tundra. However, shrubs may be impacted by a range of factors such as herbivory, snow cover, moisture, and temperatures, and the long-term impact are not well known. Ancient DNA has recently revolutionized our understanding of effect of past climate changes as it provides a local vegetation signal of high taxonomic resolution. Unfortunately, the dominant shrub genera, birch (Betula) and willow (Salix), are rarely distinguished to the species level in ancient DNA studies. This PhD will focus on 1) developing genomic methods for species level identification of shrubs from lake sediments, and 2) using latitudinal gradients of sedimentary ancient DNA to study past effects of environmental changes on arctic greening. We have produced the genome skims of most arctic plant species through the project PhyloNorway, which will provide a basis for method development. Further, the centre has analyzed >50 sediment cores for plant and animal DNA, and these will be available for re-analyses using methods dedicated to distinguishing the shrubs. The available plant DNA data can be used to reconstruct past temperature, moisture, disturbance, and a range of other environmental factors based on plant traits whereas the mammal DNA data can be used to estimate past grazing pressure. This allows disentangling long-term impact of different drivers of ecosystem changes. Deadline 5th of June 2024 PhD application portal: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/263171/phd-fellow-in-plant-ecology-and-evolution Contact: Prof. Inger Greve Alsos The Arctic University Museum of Norway UiT - The Arctic University of Norway NO-9037 Troms� Norway Telephone: +47 77 62 07 96 Email:inger.g.alsos@uit.no For the questions regarding "Changing Arctic" Reaserch school Contact: Dr Galina Gusarova Email: galina.gusarova@uit.no Galina Gusarova (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)