Seagrass meadows form key components of coastal zones around the world because of the many services they provide to humanity (e.g. coastal protection, carbon storage, and biodiversity enhancement), but are rapidly declining due to a variety of factors including coastal development and declining water quality. To halt and reverse these losses, seagrass restoration is gaining priority in many nations, but has proven to be challenging. In the southwestern Netherlands a large-scale seagrass restoration programme has been initiated by Rijkswaterstaat (part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment), aiming to restore seagrass meadows and their ecosystem services. This project is part of a programme under the European Water Framework Directive. Guided by a team of experts, you will conduct large- and small-scale field manipulations in Lake Grevelingen and Lake Veere, and laboratory experiments, data analysis and modelling, to unravel what processes are essential for successful seagrass restoration. In practice, this means you will explore potential restoration obstacles like food web alterations (crab abundance), biogeochemistry (anoxia), plant disease and unsuitable microbiomes.

You will help improve technologies of seed collection, treatment, storage and dispersal. Depending on the outcome of your explorations, you and the supporting team will pursue the most promising lines and design new experiments in order to gain maximum understanding of the drivers relevant for restoration. Quantification of ecosystem services of seagrass meadows will be part of the project. You will collaborate with restoration teams in the rest of the world and may perform joint experiments in a global network (travelling). This PhD project can be considered a quest, in which you will encounter many facets of coastal ecology.

You should hold an MSc degree in one of the Natural Sciences (e.g. biology, ecology or environmental science), and a driving license. You have passion for ecology and nature, you have perseverance, organisational and analytical skills and you are curious, responsible and communicative. Proficiency of the Dutch language is an advantage.

you will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years
you will be classified as a PhD Candidate in the Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO).
the gross starting salary amounts to €2,222 per month, and will increase to €2,840 in the fourth year
Interviews of the selected candidates will be held on 1 or 2 February 2018.

Radboud University

Strategically located in Europe, Radboud University is one of the leading academic communities in the Netherlands. A place with a personal touch, where top-flight education and research take place on a beautiful green campus in modern buildings with state-of-art facilities.

http://www.ru.nl

Faculty of Science

You will be appointed at the Department of Environmental Science, which is part of the Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University. In this project we collaborate with the Department of Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Biology at our faculty, the Netherlands Institute of Sea Research in Yerseke and Texel, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Fieldwork Company and Rijkswaterstaat Zee en Delta.

No commercial propositions please.

http://www.ru.nl/environmentalscience/ ; http://www.ru.nl/science/aquatic/ ; www.nioz.nl/en