Der Ozeanboden

Determining the pre-anthropogenic baseline of pelagic biodiversity change

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Project Description

Marine biodiversity is changing due to anthropogenic stressors. However, meaningful attribution of the observed changes in species ranges and associated turnover to anthropogenic impact requires knowledge of a baseline of natural variability. Our understanding of natural variability of pelagic biodiversity is limited due to the lack of observations prior to marked human influence. This project aims to fill that knowledge gap by creating and analysing a dedicated database of plankton species assemblage change on supra-decadal time scales. Specifically, we will use data for three different (climatically stable) time periods: i) the common era to capture the transition from minimal to current levels of anthropogenic pressure, ii) the last glacial maximum to assess the dependance of natural variability on the climate state and iii) the last interglacial to assess natural variability in warmer world. This database will naturally link modern and palaeo biodiversity observations and serve as a baseline to evaluate the current human-induced biodiversity crisis as well as past abrupt changes in marine biodiversity. This project will combine data synthesis with the generation of new data from existing samples to fill in gaps in spatiotemporal coverage. The latter will benefit from efforts to establish an automated microfossil image recognition pipeline at MARUM. The candidate will be supervised by a multidisciplinary team embedded in international research projects like AGELESS and BioDeepTime.

Further Reading

related projects: AGELESS, BioDeepTime (BDT).

• Lewandowska AM, Jonkers L, Auel H, et al. Scale dependence of temporal biodiversity change in modern and fossil marine plankton. Global Ecol Biogeogr. 2020; 29: 1008–1019. doi: 10.1111/geb.13078
• Smith, J., Rillo, M. C., Kocsis, Á. T., Dornelas, M., Fastovich, D., Huang, H.-H. M., Jonkers, L., Kiessling, W., Li, Q., Liow, L. H., Margulis-Ohnuma, M., Meyers, S., Na, L., Penny, A. M., Pippenger, K., Renaudie, J., Saupe, E. E., Steinbauer, M. J., Sugawara, M. … Hull, P. M. (2023). BioDeepTime: A database of biodiversity time series for modern and fossil assemblages. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 32, 1680–1689. doi: 10.1111/geb.13735
• Jonkers, L., Hillebrand, H. & Kucera, M. Global change drives modern plankton communities away from the pre-industrial state. Nature 570, 372–375 (2019). doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1230-3

Modalities

The doctoral project will be supervised by Lukas Jonkers (MARUM) and Helmut Hillebrand (UOL). Depending on the personal expertise of the doctoral candidate, it will be supervised within the working group “Micropaleontology” (Bremen) or the working group “Plankton Ecology” (Oldenburg). The remuneration corresponds to pay group TV-L 13 with 75% of the weekly working hours. The positions is for a fixed-term period of 4 years, starting January 1st 2026 the earliest and until at most December 31, 2029 (according to § 2 WissZeitVG) with the aim of obtaining a doctorate.

The project mentoring team also includes: Thom Laepple (AWI Potsdam), Pincelli Hull (Yale University) and Michal Kucera (MARUM).

Main Tasks

Scientific research in the field of (pelagic) palaeo-ecology:

• Microfossil abundance data generation and data synthesis

• Quantitative analysis of sedimentary time series of plankton assemblages

• Writing scientific publications and open source code (software)

• Participation in international conferences

Formal Requirements:

Completed scientific university degree (Master/University diploma or comparable) in Quantitative Ecology, or Paleontology, or Computer Science with a strong affinity for macro ecology, or equivalent

Further questions?

Questions about the project can be addressed to Lukas Jonkers ([Bitte aktivieren Sie Javascript]) or Helmut Hillebrand ([Bitte aktivieren Sie Javascript]).