What is it about?
Microbial dispersal in soils is an important trait to understand better the functioning of soil
processes such as the transport of soil bacteria into groundwater, the spreading of soilborne pathogens and antibiotic resistance, and the provision of ecosystem services. You will study the effects of nutrient availability and soil pore size on the dispersal of natural soil communities when colonising a pristine space. You will use microfluidic devices (transparent soil pore space models that provide us with “windows to the soil” and controlled experimental conditions), and other
cutting-edge methods in microbial ecology.
What will you do?
- Microscopy in microfluidic devices
- Deep learning-based image analysis
- DNA extraction from microfluidic devices and soil analogue microcosms
- Bacterial community analysis (16S metabarcoding): bioinformatics
- And other stuff, if you want
Who will supervise you?
You will join the Soil Chip group, an interdisciplinary research group that focuses on soil microbial processes at the microscale. You will be working with Ada Behncké-Serra (PhD student) under the supervision of Edith Hammer.
Questions? Other ideas? Let’s talk about it! Contact: ada.behncke_serra@biol.lu.se