Detecting global patterns in plant functioning and the impact of gap-filling

Plant traits (e.g. leaf size or wood density) are a key to understanding how plants as primary producers adjust to changes in environmental conditions and in turn influence them. Forming the basis for Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs), plant traits are also fundamental in global change studies for predicting future ecosystem changes. The main aims of this MSc project will be to assess the impact of gap filling in plant functional trait matrices using a number of statistical techniques, comparing attributes of the filled datasets with those of the original, incomplete matrix and performing advanced multivariate analyses to detect the uniformity of global plant trait relationships.

Weitere Informationen

Unternehmen

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.

Bereich/Abteilung

Funktionelle Biogeographie

Abschlussart

Masterarbeit

Ansprechpartner/in

In case of interest please contact Dr. Franziska Schrodt with a full CV: fschrodt@bgc-jena.de

Hans-Knöll-Straße 10
07745 Jena

Tel.: +49 (0)3641 57-60
Fax: +49 (0)364157-70

www.bgc-jena.mpg.de

Branche

Forschung und Entwicklung

Anforderungen

• Background in Geoecology, Biogeosciences, Biology, Bioinformatics or a related field
• Interest and motivation to work in the field of functional plant trait ecology
• Knowledge of multivariate analysis techniques
• Ideally some experience of scientific computing (R, Matlab, Julia) or other programming skills

Zusatzinformationen

You will have the unique opportunity to work with one of the most exciting data sets within the discipline of plant ecology (http://www.try-db.org). Working at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry means to become part of a world-renowned multidisciplinary research community with the ability to attend weekly talks and colloquia with scientists from across the globe.

We are also offering internships on the above topic.