Postdoc in Improving Soil Phosphorus Bioavailability

Updated: 11 months ago
Location: Odense C, REGION SYDDANMARK
Job Type: FullTime
Deadline: 25 May 2023

A three-year postdoc position within: "Improving phosphorus bioavailability to agricultural crops by recycling phosphorus containing products in combination with microbial rhizosphere P solubilization" is available at the Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. The start date is 1 August 2023, or soon thereafter.

Project background
Phosphorus (P) is an essential plant nutrient with unique functions. In the soil, most P is found in insoluble inorganic or in slowly mineralising organic compounds. Consequently, P is often a limiting plant nutrient on a local scale, but also on a global scale due to the limited abundance of, and uneven access to, P containing rock reserves. Therefore, the objective of this project is to add to an improved circular management of P in agriculture by activating naturally occurring processes in the rhizosphere to improve the bioavailability of P. This will be done by amending native soil microorganisms, with specialized P solubilizing abilities to agricultural soils. In addition, the project will investigate the microbially-mediated P solubilization of a range of waste products (e.g. sewage sludge and lake sediments) to improve their fertilizer value.

Qualifications
We are looking for a motivated candidate to study different aspects of plant availability of P in soils amended with natural microorganisms or P containing waste products such as e.g. lake sediments and wastewater sludge, by conducting plant experiments and assess the mobility of P in soils by various approaches such as e.g. diffusive gradients in thin films (DGTs) analysis and chemical extractions. Furthermore, the candidate will pursue speciation of P and Fe species by different analytical chemical techniques, such as e.g. 31P NMR spectroscopy and P k-edge XANES. The ideal candidate should have a strong background in P chemistry and preferably also plant ecology and microbiology. The candidate should be able to work independently and to communicate fluently in English, have good writing skills as well as possess good interpersonal skills. Furthermore, teaching obligations at the Department of Biology, should be expected.

The postdoc covers the area of soil biogeochemistry, microbiology and analytical chemistry and will be aligned with ongoing research at the Freshwater Ecology group at the Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark.

Deadline: 25 May 2023.

Please see the full call, including how to apply, on www.sdu.dk .