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Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München is a leading research university in Europe. Since its founding in 1472 it has been committed to the highest international standards of excellence in research and teaching.

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Your tasks and responsibilities:

Project description: Social competition within- and among-species: drivers of pace-of-life in wild passerine birds?

The field of behavioural ecology increasingly focuses on why individual animals differ in suites of behavioural and morphological traits, and whether those differences are associated with life-history variation. A key question is whether life-history trade-offs explain the evolutionary maintenance of this variation in “pace-of-life syndromes”. There is much debate on this issue because life-history trade-offs cannot by themselves maintain variation. This project will test predictions of a novel eco-evolutionary explanation that has great potential to resolve this debate. The framework explains variation among species, populations, and individuals alike. We propose that variation in pace-of-life results from trade-offs between intrinsic rate of density-independent reproduction and competitive ability. This incorporates ecological variation required to maintain variation as faster (vs. slower) paces-of-life are favoured when competition for resources is relaxed (vs. intensified). We will test this idea by combining behavioural ecology and quantitative genetics, and by using experimental and population comparative approaches.



The PhD-student will work in the Behavioural Ecology Group at LMU. The group works broadly on individual behaviour and life-history, and consists of 5 PhD-students and 3 postdocs, offering a dynamic social environment. The PhD-student will collaborate closely with the project’s postdoc (Dr. Barbara Class), who will focus on social selection and indirect genetic effects analyses of long-term pedigreed datasets of >40 European tit populations with members of SPI-Birds as part of this project. The PhD-student will collaborate with Prof. Kees van Oers (NIOO, Wageningen) and Prof. Both (University of Groningen) on metabarcoding, with Dr. Culina (Ruder Boskovic Institute), Prof. Visser (NIOO) and SPI-Birds members on collaborative SPI-Birds projects, and with various other international partners.



The PhD-student will:

(1) manipulate intra- and interspecific competitive regimes as drivers of selection on pace-of-life syndromes within and among sympatric nest box populations of blue and great tits.

(2) Use DNA metabarcoding of faecal samples to estimate relative abundances of arthropods in the tits’ diet to study whether habitat selection and dietary specialisation mediate pace-of-life-related adaptations to intra- and interspecific competitive regimes.

(3) Study whether competition-related selection on pace-of-life can explain variation in behaviour, morphology, and life history among and within species.



Your qualifications:

The successful candidate should have background training in quantitative genetics, evolutionary biology, and/or behavioural ecology. We are looking for candidates that have experience with fieldwork, bird handling, are able to work independently, and coordinate large teams. The candidate should be trained/interested in advanced statistics (e.g. mixed and animal model analyses). Social skills are important for fieldwork execution and SPI-Birds collaborations. Successful candidates speak fluent English.



Benefits:

Successful candidates will be offered a three-year PhD-position funded by a grant of the German Science Foundation to Prof. NJ Dingemanse. Starting date is 01.01.2023.



People with disabilities who are equally as qualified as other applicants will receive preferential treatment.



Contact:

Candidates should send a motivation letter and CV to Prof. N. Dingemanse over email (n.dingemanse@lmu.de). Submission deadline is 15.11.2022. Interviews will be scheduled on 21.11.2022 and take place online.