PhD Studentship: Grassland Fungi Recovery After Disturbance

This PhD studentship at the University of East Anglia investigates the long-term recovery of grassland fungal communities following agricultural and environmental disturbances. Operating within the Biological Sciences department and funded by ARIES, the project leverages established long-term experiment sites across the UK to combine field sampling, high-throughput metabarcoding sequencing, and soil biogeochemistry analyses. The successful candidate will receive comprehensive interdisciplinary training in ecology, bioinformatics, and data science, with opportunities to collaborate with Rothamsted Research and the Earlham Institute. The candidate is expected to conduct rigorous field and lab work, analyze complex microbiome datasets, and disseminate findings at academic conferences.

• Collect soil samples across multiple UK long-term grassland experiment sites spanning various disturbance histories.
• Perform DNA extraction and metabarcoding sequencing to characterize fungal and bacterial community composition.
• Analyze soil chemistry data alongside microbial sequencing results to evaluate environmental drivers of recovery.
• Conduct high-resolution sampling of plant roots, rhizosphere, and bulk soil for a focal grass species.
• Process and analyze complex bioinformatics datasets using modern coding and data science techniques.
• Collaborate with partner institutions including Rothamsted Research and the Earlham Institute.
• Prepare research findings for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presentation at conferences.