[Taxacom] Polar Sciences Vegetation, Arctic and Antarctic

[Robin Leech]

Announcement of international PhD grant in Polar Sciences for vegetation and 
permafrost studies in Antarctica



Duration: 3 years

PhD in Polar Sciences: the PhD is an international PhD, therefore not 
Italian student are invited to participate to the public selection

The PhD activities will be developed within the project “Permafrost and 
Climate Change in Antarctica: study and monitoring of Climate Change impacts 
on permafrost and related terrestrial ecosystems”. This project is inserted 
in an international framework and is linked to international and 
multidisciplinary panels, such as GCOS (Global Climate Observing System) and 
the SCAR project EBA (Evolution and Biodiversity in Antarctica) (formerly 
RiSCC, Regional Sensitivity to Climate Change in antarctic terrestrial and 
limnetic ecosystems), LGP (Latitudinal Gradient Project), CALM (Circumpolar 
Active Layer Monitoring), ANTPAS (Antarctic and sub-Antarctic Permafrost, 
Periglacial and Soil Environments) and TSP (Permafrost Observatory Project: 
A Contribution to the Thermal State of Permafrost) and GTNet-P (Global 
Terrestrial Network for Permafrost).

Work location: University of Ferrara, Italy and, partially, at Milano and 
Varese University (Italy).

Tutor: Dr PhD Nicoletta Cannone (University of Ferrara)

Requirements: The candidates must provide a second level degree at least a 4 
years degree, documented polar experience, specialization in Botany and 
fluent English (the learning of elemental Italian could be useful) and are 
invited to contact and send their curriculum vitae to Dr Nicoletta Cannone 
to the e-mail address: nicoletta.cannone at unife.it

Economical information: The amount of the grant will be of 10561 EURO per 
year. In addition, the grant will cover the travel expenses from Ferrara to 
the research areas and return to Ferrara and all the authorised travel 
expenses needed for the research activities. During the periods of field 
activities in areas located south to latitude 60° S, there will be an 
additional payment for all the period of permanence in Antarctica.

Topics and activities: The research activities will focus on the study and 
the monitoring of the relationship between vegetation, permafrost and the 
climatic change through a multidisciplinary approach along latitudinal and 
climatic transects. The research will focus on two different biogeographic 
areas of Antarctica, respectively, Continental Antarctica and Maritime 
Antarctic and, for comparison, on the Svalbard Islands as template site for 
the Northern Hemisphere.

One of the main research objectives will be to analyse the vegetation 
changes (both at species and community level) of long-term monitoring plots 
established across a latitudinal network at Victoria Land (Continental 
Antarctica) in 2001-2003, and at King George Island (South Shetlands, 
Maritime Antarctica) in 2000-2001.

Moreover, the monitoring network of Victoria Land will be implemented 
including new inland sites and new sites at the latitudinal extremes of the 
investigated gradient and with the elaboration of a phytosociological map of 
the vegetation occurring at the CALM site of Boulderclay. In Maritime 
Antarctica the network is still under construction and will be implemented 
with the inclusion of new sites in Maritime Antarctica at Rothera and Signy 
and with the elaboration of a phytosociological maps of the vegetation 
occurring at the CALM sites of Signy and Rothera. At Ny-Ålesund will be 
established new long-term monitoring plots, thus providing data for a 
bipolar approach.

The impacts of climate change on ecosystem functioning will be assessed also 
through analyses of CO2 fluxes in the network sites both in Continental and 
Maritime Antartica through an Infrared Gas Analyser (IRGA).

In addition, analyses of intraspecific genetic variability and of the 
secondary metabolites of some target lichens species will be carried out to 
evaluate their relationships to latitudinal and environmental gradients.

The research results will allow the development of models to forecast future 
scenarios within the framework of SCAR-EBA project.

The research activities will be carried out in the frame of the project 
“Permafrost and climate change in Antarctica” (funded by PNRA, Progetto 
Nazionale Ricerche in Antartide) and are included in the frame of 
international and multidisciplinary panels, such as the SCAR project EBA 
(Evolution and Biodiversity in Antarctica), LGP (Latitudinal Gradient 
Project), GCOS (Global Climate Observing System), ANTPAS (Antarctic and 
sub-Antarctic Permafrost, Periglacial and Soil Environments) and TSP 
(Permafrost Observatory Project: A Contribution to the Thermal State of 
Permafrost), CALM (Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring) and GTNet-P (Global 
Terrestrial Network for Permafrost).

Field Activities: the field activities will be two research campaigns in 
Antarctica and one in the High Arctic.