Postdoctoral Researcher position Food Web Ecology

The job

Food-web ecology provides detailed insight into how energy flows among organisms, while ecosystem metabolism captures whole-stream production and respiration but largely treats the biological community as a black box. MetaBoxWeb integrates these perspectives. Using existing datasets from streams and rivers across regions and environmental conditions, the project combines food-web ecology, biodiversity–ecosystem functioning theory, and stream biogeochemistry to address fundamental questions about how biodiversity regulates ecosystem functioning and how these relationships shift under human impacts. You will work closely with a second postdoctoral researcher specializing in ecosystem metabolism and with an international network of freshwater ecologists.

Your tasks

You will take a leading role in the food-web component of MetaBoxWeb and have substantial scope to develop your own ideas within the broader project framework. Your work will include:

• synthesizing existing macroinvertebrate and fish datasets spanning a broad range of streams, rivers and environmental conditions
• estimating secondary production from abundance, biomass and body-size data
• reconstructing quantitative food webs and energy fluxes using allometric approaches, feeding information, traits and food-web models such as fluxweb
• testing how horizontal and vertical food-web diversity, food-chain length and trophic structure relate to ecosystem productivity
• exploring the balance between bottom-up resource supply and top-down consumer control, including green and brown energy pathways
• working with the ecosystem-metabolism postdoc to connect consumer production and energy fluxes with gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER)
• leading peer-reviewed publications and presenting the work at international conferences

We offer

• The freedom to master even the most demanding challenges between basic research and practical application
• The chance to work in interdisciplinary, international teams and benefit from a variety of perspectives
• Firstclass integration into national and international research networks to work together on global challenges
• Excellent research infrastructure and research data management to optimally support your work
• Flexible working hours and a wide range of options for balancing work and care responsibilities through our family office
• Competent support and advice for international colleagues arriving at the UFZ from the ‘International Office’
• Special annual payment, capital-forming benefits and subsidised Germany Job Ticket
• A workplace in a vibrant region with a high life quality and social and cultural diversity

Your profile

• PhD in ecology, biology or a closely related discipline
• A strong background in freshwater ecology, food-web ecology, community ecology or ecosystem ecology
• Experience in working with ecological datasets and strong quantitative skills
• Proficiency in R and experience with statistical analysis and reproducible workflows
• Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research and publish scientific results in international peer-reviewed journals
• Excellent communication skills and enthusiasm for working across disciplinary boundaries in an international team

We are looking for an ecologist who enjoys working at the interface of organisms, food webs and ecosystem processes.