PhD student to study mycorrhizal interactions

The current position will be in the research group Understanding Evolution, led by Dr. Vincent Merckx.

Position

The vast majority of land plants transfer part of the organic carbon they produce by photosynthesis to rootassociated ‘arbuscular mycorrhizal’ (AM) fungi, which help plants to take up nutrients and water from the soil. This carbon can be subsequently taken up by rare non-green plants that tap into the same fungal network. New data now suggests that this phenomenon is more widespread and indicates that common green plants can also take up carbon from AM fungi. However, the plant and fungal diversity involved in AM ‘mixotrophy’ are unknown.

In this PhD project, we will investigate the ecophysiology of AM understory plants and their mycorrhizal connections in several research plots in forests around the world. The PhD candidate will design and test sampling protocols, perform stable isotope analyses, record plant traits, and develop and use metabarcoding approaches to map mycorrhizal networks.

This PhD position is made possible by the ERC Consolidator Grant MIXOTROPH (2022-2027) and the PhD candidate will interact closely with other members of the MIXOTROPH team, as well as other members of the Understanding Evolution group at Naturalis in which this project is embedded.

The PhD candidate will be supervised by Dr. Vincent Merckx. The candidate will receive his/her PhD degree at the University of Amsterdam and Dr. Vincent Merckx will be the promotor.