Are you keen on investigating how Holocene rivers functioned and which life they sustained? Are you enthusiastic about exploring new approaches? We are looking for a PhD candidate who will strengthen our team! Europe's ambitious new nature restoration law aims to rehabilitate 25,000 kilometers of rivers for conservation by 2030. Centuries of human intervention have profoundly transformed river and stream landscapes, disrupting their natural dynamics. To identify truly ‘natural’ and resilient river systems, we must look to the past—examining the sedimentary record of rivers. In natural rivers, life plays a far greater role in shaping physical processes compared to human-modified streams, yet our understanding of these interactions remains limited. This project leverages newly developed sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) to provide unprecedented insights into past abiotic-biotic relationships in past rivers and floodplains. Like any new and cutting-edge method, it is crucial to validate it. This is especially important in dynamic environments such as rivers. As a PhD candidate your aim is to – for the first time - gain insights into how DNA gets transported and deposited, and how this is then represented in the fluvial sedimentary record. This will be done using a nested catchment approach, and include sampling water, freshly deposited, and Holocene sediments.
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