PhD position in evolutionary ecology of social interactions in stickleback

Work Environment and Project Description

The IEE in colllaboration with the EAWAG provide a world-leading scientific environment for the career development and intellectual enrichment of the PhD student, along with ample opportunities for networking and collaboration within a large community of graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and professors. The IEE is full of diverse, international, and interdisciplinary research groups, including our own Division of Evolutionary Ecology. Within our division and the Socio-Eco-Evo research group, we strive to create a lab environment where everyone feels welcome and supported. This includes a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination or harassment.
The University of Bern is situated near the heart of one of Europe's best-preserved medieval cities, which also happens to be a vibrant center for contemporary arts and culture. The quality of life in Bern is very high, and endless outdoor adventures in the alps and elsewhere are in close vicinity. The starting date of the PhD position is ideally September 1, 2026, with some limited flexibility contingent on whether the student has finished their Master program. The starting salary is approximately 50,000 CHF and includes social security contributions. A fully funded 4-year PhD position, supervised by Dr. Jordan Martin and Prof. Katie Peichel, is available in the newly formed Socio-Eco-Evo group hosted within the Division of Evolutionary Ecology. This position is part of the SNSF Ambizione project “Socio-eco-evolutionary dynamics in stickleback: The parallel co-evolution of social behavior, morphology, and plasticity in response to predation”. We are studying how social plasticity has shaped the pace of stickleback's behavioral and morphological adaptation to predation in novel freshwater environments throughout southern Greenland. The project and position will be completed in close collaboration with Blake Matthew's group at Eawag. See https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2435.70132 for a theoretical introduction to the topic of social plasticity and socio-eco-evolutionary dynamics, as well as https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.14382 for an overview of the study population.

What You Can Achieve

The PhD project will involve collaboration in multiple seasons of fieldwork in Greenland, where we're studying 30 ecologically diverse populations of stickleback, as well as a large common garden experiment in Switzerland. Responsibilities will include intensive, methodical collection of behavioral, morphological, and genomic data, as well as routine animal care in and leadership over the experimental study. Statistical and genomic analyses will be led by the project supervisors, with ample opportunity for learning. Students will be provided flexibility and hands-on mentorship to help develop their own research questions within the broader scope of our two primary project goals:
1. Quantifying phenotypic and genomic diversity across lakes. What is the relative importance of plasticity versus genetic differentiation for explaining variation in social behavior and morphology among populations? How do tradeoffs between or integration among behavior and morphology shape the direction and magnitude of population divergence? How does social plasticity shape the evolvability of behavior and morphology via direct and indirect genetic effects?

2. Inferring the predictability of (co)evolutionary responses to predation. Does predation have consistent effects on genetic variation and plasticity in social behavior and morphology? How predictable is parallel evolution of social plasticity, behavior, and morphology across lakes at the phenotypic and genomic levels? Is behavior a leader or follower of morphological adaptation, and does social plasticity influence the pace of this evolutionary change?

Your Profile

Candidates should be highly motivated, independent, and conscientious, while also exhibiting a keen desire to work collaboratively and cooperatively with colleagues. We welcome applications from individuals with a strong background in behavioral ecology and animal behavior, particularly those with training in evolutionary biology. Prior experience successfully carrying out behavioral experiments in the field and/or laboratory is essential, and training with automated coding techniques for such experiments is highly valued. Preference will be given to candidates who have familiarity with R and Bayesian statistics, have worked with fish or in aquatic habitats, and/or have training in evolutionary genetics, morphometrics, or social evolution. A love of animals and the outdoors will also be appreciated.
Candidate's letter of motivation should concretely describe how they fit these criteria, as well as their reasons for pursuing this specific project and a PhD in evolutionary biology more generally. Candidates must have good communication skills in English, which is the working language at our institute. A master's degree in biology or a closely related subject is required, and the position is open to applicants worldwide. We are committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in ecology and evolution, and so we especially encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups.