Dear colleagues,
We are looking for a highly motivated PhD-student to join our new interdisciplinary project on ‘The relationship between climate, biodiversity, disease and coffee yield’ in Southwestern Ethiopia.
For more information see the project description (below) and the following link:
https://www.su.se/english/about/working-at-su/phd?rmpage=job&rmjob=5104&rmlang=UK
and don’t hesitate to contact me directly by email, (closing date is 25 May 2018)
My best,
Ayco Tack & Kristoffer Hylander
ayco.tack@su.se
Project description
The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences invites applications for a four-year PhD position as part of a project on ‘The relationship between climate, disease and coffee yield: Optimizing management for smallholder farmers’.
High-profile studies have warned for the threat of climate change and fungal disease on world coffee production at a global scale. However, few studies have targeted the opportunities and challenges of smallholder coffee farmers to face such changes. For this we need detailed insights on the link between climate, disease and yield, and how the farmers can improve their livelihood by optimal management. This project focuses on the link between climate, diseases, management and the livelihood of smallholder farmers in southwestern Ethiopia. Within the study area, coffee is grown in the shade of natural trees, and the farmer therefore has the unique opportunity to influence the link between the macroclimate and the microclimate by managing the shade cover.
The overarching aim of the PhD project is to understand the relationship between management, macro- and microclimate, disease levels, and yield, and use these insights to optimize management decisions by smallholder farmers. The project is strongly interdisciplinary, including climate modelling, farmer interviews, field surveys and field experiments. More specifically, we aim to: i) use dataloggers to model the spatial and temporal variation in the macro- and microclimate, and explore future climate scenarios under different carbon-emission levels, ii) use field surveys to link climatic variation and management to disease levels and coffee yield, iii) conduct a questionnaire to understand the decision-making process by the farmer, which may be influenced by observations of past and present yield, disease levels, the macro- and microclimate and perceived ecosystem services, and iv) use a manipulative field experiment using shading and irrigation to validate the effectiveness of adaptive management.
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Ayco Tack
Assistant professor
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences
Stockholm University
SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting address: Svante Arrhenius Väg 20A, room N420
Phone: + 46-(0)8-163959
Mobile: + 46-(0)70-4942557
ayco.tack@su.se
www.plantmicrobeinsect.com
www.su.se/profiles/atack
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