Germany:Doctoral Position Agricultural function of grassland biodiversity in productive farming systems, PhD Program Biodiversity and Society

Grasslands in Central Europe strongly contribute to the biodiversity in rural landscapes. Intensive agriculture has a detrimental effect on biodiversity. However, recent research has shown that diversity also has the potential to support grassland production systems by stabilizing or even increasing yields. So far, these findings have hardly been applied or verified in current productive farming systems. In a multidisciplinary approach, agronomic, economic, philosophical and social dimensions of ecological results will be discussed (for details www.biodiversitaet-gesellschaft.uni-goettingen.de).

Requirements
MSc degree in agriculture or biology or related disciplines. Interest in independent and multidisciplinary research. Good knowledge in grassland and vegetation science, knowledge in statistics is desirable.

Scholarship and conditions
Scholarship is 1365 Euro per month. Start date: October 1, 2010. The position is for three years. The doctoral thesis will be done as a series of English manuscripts.

Applications
Applicants should send their documents in one single pdf-file to the following email address as soon as possible (latest July 1, 2010): biodiv@uni-goettingen.de
The following information is required:
Tabular description of your professional career; educational certificates/diplomas, including other work experiences, internships etc.; letter of intent describing your interest in signing up for the PhD study course; assertion that, until now, you have not begun or completed a PhD project; document certifying a successful language test for German or English, if you did not obtain your degree in Germany.

For more detailled information please contact: Prof. Dr. Johannes Isselstein (jissels@gwdg.de)
Application Deadline : 1 July 2010