Explore and teach at the University of Vienna, where more than 7,500 academics thrive on curiosity in continuous exploration and help us better understand our world. Does this sound like you? Then join our accomplished team!

The project

In a project fully funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the successful candidate will explore demographic responses of alpine biota (flowering plants and arthropods) to past climatic oscillations. Specifically, the following question will be addressed:
•    Did high-elevation species of the European Alps respond to Pleistocene climate oscillations by postglacial expansion or by postglacial contraction?
•    Were these range shifts affected by the ecological characteristics of these species?
•    Are past population size and range changes predictive of changes expected under current global climate change?
By comparatively studying species from different plant and animal lineages, it will be possible to distinguish both (i) general patterns (i.e., applicable to many species) from idiosyncratic ones (i.e., applicable to single or a few species only) and (ii) patterns specific to certain major groups (e.g., animals vs. plants) from patterns specific to certain ecological groups (e.g., species from swards vs. screes). By identifying characteristics affecting the response of high-mountain species to global warming in a predictable manner, this research can significantly contribute towards generating hypotheses with respect to the fate of high-elevation species under current global climate change.

Your future tasks:

To this end, the demographic histories of 20 plant and 10 animal species from the European Alps and jointly occurring in all major alpine habitat types will be inferred based on RADseq-data employing coalescent-based modelling, and their fit to the postglacial contraction and the postglacial expansion hypothesis, respectively, will be assessed using standard model testing approaches. To assess whether population size changes were accompanied by range size changes, past and current potential distribution ranges, assessed via species distribution modelling, will be compared.

Application:

The position is open from March 2025, but the start date is more flexible and can be adjusted depending on the successful candidate’s availability. 
To apply for the position, please include your CV, a letter of motivation, research interests, a brief description of your methods skills, and the contact data of two referees in a single pdf file and send it to gerald.schneeweiss@univie.ac.at by February 15th, 2025. 
 

What we offer:

•    A three-year PhD (pre-doc) contract with flexible starting time, ideally not later than spring 2025, with an annual gross salary (as of 2025) of 47,520,00 € (social and health insurance included)
•    Work in a friendly, collaborative, and highly international research environment at the Department of Botany and Biodiversity (https://botanik.univie.ac.at/), providing outstanding research facilities and infrastructure and support from scientific and technical staff of the Department
•    Great network opportunities with our project collaborators at University of Innsbruck (Research Group Molecular Ecology and Research Group Biodiversity) and with other groups at UVie and elsewhere (e.g., Gregor Mendel Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Science and Technology Austria)
•    Possibility for completion of a PhD study in Biology within the Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution (VDSEE; https://vds-ecology-evolution.univie.ac.at/)

For further inquiries, please contact the PI directly via email: gerald.schneeweiss@univie.ac.at 

Requirements: 

•    MSc degree or equivalent in Biology or a related field
•    Very good written and oral English skills
•    Experience in molecular and bioinformatic applications
•    Ideally field experience in high mountain ecosystems