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Background

In the 20th century, agriculture has experienced major gains in productivity via homogenization and intensive use of input. This model is jeopardized by the awareness of rapid global change, increased environmental stochasticity and the need for greater sustainability of agriculture. A new paradigm is emerging, in which biodiversity and the mechanisms underlying its dynamics are considered assets for a sustainable agriculture relying more on ecological functions within agroecosystems. Plant and soil microbial genetic diversity should play an essential role in this context, as key elements contributing to agriculture multi-functionality and to the resilience of agroecosystems under rapid climate change and decreased chemical inputs.

Assignments

The Post-Doc fellow will participate to field campaigns with other participants of the Wheatamix consortium, and will be in charge of quantifying and analysing the effects of wheat variety diversity on soil microbial communities and soil processes, with a particular focus on N-related processes (mineralisation, nitrification and denitrification) using biochemical assays, qPCR and high throughput sequencing.
He/she will also contribute to more comprehensive approaches of the relationships between variety diversity and agroecosystem functioning and services.

Selection details

Applicants must have a PhD in microbial ecology, with solid knowledge bases on plant/microbes interactions, ecology of microorganisms in soil, and molecular approaches such as quantitative PCR and high throughput sequencing. Dedication and a creative mind will be important to conduct the project. Good proficiency in English is required. French will not be a selection criterion.

Fellowship details

• The post-doc will work at the Microbial Ecology Centre of Lyon University (France), team Microbial functional groups and nitrogen cycle
• Period of the contract: 24 months
• Official starting date between November 2014 and March 2015
• Application : Xavier Le Roux (Xavier.le-roux@univ-lyon1.fr), Amélie Cantarel (amelie.cantarel@univ-lyon1.fr) and Thomas Pommier (thomas.pommier@univ-lyon1.fr)

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