Biology Education

Migratory birds use daylength, or photoperiod, to align their migration schedules to the annual cycle, and geomagnetic information for compass orientation and positioning. How the migration phenotype in birds is controlled by geophysical information, i.e. daylength and geomagnetic information, is still poorly understood. We aim to test the hypothesis that long-distance migrants can adjust their schedule of migratory fueling to a novel geomagnetic environment by bringing juvenile songbirds into captivity, and we are looking for a dedicated master’s student to conduct the experiment. We will capture long-distance migratory songbirds in southern Sweden and will use purpose built behavioural labs (OriLAB) to simulate geomagnetic field experienced during their typical migration. Fieldwork starts: 1 August 2025. You will work in a team of scientists (including a PhD student) but will pursue your own project as a Master’s thesis.

If understanding how the endogenous migration program of songbirds’ functions and is controlled by geophysical information excites you and you like to work with animals, then this may be your master’s project. Please, contact Professor Susanne Åkesson for more information.

Professor Susanne Åkesson, Department of Biology

susanne.akesson@biol.lu.se

Ready to lead your own ecological research project in the field? We are looking for Master students interested in evolutionary ecology, sensory ecology, and climate change to join the Qvarnström Lab, studying wild birds. You will be part of our team monitoring natural populations of flycatchers and their hybrids while also collecting data for your own thesis!

Master’s Project 1: Using Olfactory Cues to Find Food

Background: The ability of birds to regulate insect populations is debated but can be a powerful ecosystem service. Many mechanisms behind the foraging efficiency of birds are still being discovered. While it has been shown that excluding birds from crop fields can lead to increased insect damage (e.g., Garcia et al., 2018), their regulation role in natural settings remains unknown as well as the mechanisms by which birds locate the best feeding spots.
Ground-breaking research, including our own, suggests that olfaction may play a crucial role. We have found that genetic variation in olfaction-related genes in collared flycatchers is linked to the amount of caterpillar larvae on their breeding territories. Does this mean that flycatchers actually use olfaction cues to locate trees that are heavily infested with their prey? If true, this means that we have severely underestimated the birds’ capacity to detect and respond to local pest outbreaks.
Objective: To directly test the hypothesis that pied and collared flycatchers use insect herbivore induced emission of biogenetic volatile organic compounds (IH-BVOCs) to identify trees with more caterpillars.
Your Role: You will measure IH-BVOC emissions from sampled tree branches and correlate these with direct bird activity. This will involve:
– Field Observation & Monitoring: Conducting systematic observations and setting up remote video cameras to monitor bird visitation rates to individual trees.
– Chemical Sampling: Collecting branch samples for subsequent chemical analysis of IH-BVOCs.
– Data Analysis: Statistically linking the chemical profiles of trees with recorded bird foraging activity.
– Fieldwork & Data Collection: Participating in long-term data collection by monitoring nest boxes.
This project offers a unique opportunity to contribute to a cutting-edge field and help answer a fundamental question with implications for both basic and applied ecology.

Master’s Project 2: Climate Change, Mismatch, and Survival
Background: Climate change is disrupting the tritrophic terrestrial tree-caterpillar-bird food chain. In our study system, warmer springs cause trees to bud and caterpillars to hatch earlier. However, migratory birds like our study species, the pied and collared flycatchers, have not advanced their breeding schedules as much. This creates a “phenological mismatch”: when the nestlings hatch, the peak abundance of caterpillars they need for food may have already passed.
This mismatch is most severe in warm springs and acts as a powerful agent of natural selection. But there can only be an evolutionary response to selection if there is genetic variation in the traits subject to selection. Why do some nestlings survive these poor conditions while others do not? We hypothesize that an individual’s innate metabolic rate is a key trait that determines their resilience.
Objective: To determine if an individual’s metabolic rate is a key trait determining its resilience to climate-driven trophic mismatches.
Your Role: You will investigate how a nestling’s innate physiology influences its ability to survive this mismatch.
Data Analysis & Modelling:
– Analysing high-resolution metabolic rate measurements from nestlings.
– Working with our long-term demographic dataset (survival, breeding dates, etc.) spanning multiple years.
– Quantifying the annual degree of phenological mismatch between birds and caterpillars.
– Using statistical modelling to determine if offspring with certain metabolic traits have a survival advantage.

Fieldwork & Data Collection: Participating in long-term data collection by monitoring nest boxes.

This project offers a rare opportunity to work at the intersection of physiology, climate change, and evolution, using a powerful dataset to answer a pressing ecological question.

Master’s Project 3: Cognition and regulation of insect populations
Background: Tritrophic interactions, such as the tree-caterpillar-bird food chain, play an important role in the ecosystems. For example, insectivorous birds, such as flycatchers, may have a role in controlling caterpillar populations, reducing the insect damage on trees. Climate change is however disrupting these tritrophic interactions, as warmer springs cause trees to bud and caterpillars to hatch earlier, and birds may not be able to adapt to the earlier emergence of caterpillar larvae quickly enough to avoid population decline. Cognition, and more specifically learning, should provide the right mechanisms for the behavioural adaptation needed in changing environments to cope with variation and uncertainty (Ghosh et al. 2023). To fully understand the general ability of birds to act as active biological control agents it is thus important to consider the cognitive processes underlying behaviours.
Objective: To understand whether individual variation in learning, cognition, and behavioral plasticity in flycatchers have an advantage in foraging and detecting trees with more caterpillar.
Your Role: You will experimentally test how variation in cognitive abilities influence the birds’ ability to identify trees with heavy caterpillar infestations. This will involve:
– Field Observation & Monitoring: Conducting systematic observations and setting up remote video cameras to monitor bird visitation rates to individual trees.
– Behavioural assays: Conduct commonly recognized and used cognition assays to individuals near nestboxes and in aviaries.
– Chemical Sampling: Collecting branch samples for subsequent chemical analysis of IH-BVOCs.
– Data Collection and Analysis: Quantify behaviours from assays recordings and link individual behavioural performance with individuals foraging in trees infested with more caterpillars.
– Fieldwork & Data Collection: Participating in long-term data collection by monitoring nest boxes.

If you are interested in either project, we strongly encourage you to contact us!
Start date is flexible!

Contact persons:
Michaëla Berdougo (PhD student) – michaela.berdougo@ebc.uu.se
Ana Gomes (PostDoc) – ana.gomes@ebc.uu.se
Professor Anna Qvarnström – anna.qvarnstrom@ebc.uu.se

European Spallation Source (ESS) omges av stora grönytor som anlades för att gynna och öka den biologiska mångfalden runt anläggningen. Redan vid planeringen fördes diskussioner med Lunds kommunekolog för att säkerställa att området blir en del i det gröna stråket genom Brunnshög mot Kungsmarkens naturreservat. Skötselrutiner är utformade för att fortsätta gynna den typ av vegetation som är naturlig i närområdet och ge en fortsatt god utveckling av den biologiska mångfalden. Anläggningsarbetet färdigställdes 2021 och det har nu gått några år. Man vill därför utvärdera hur situationen ser ut nu, fem år efter anläggandet. Har det blivit som det var tänkt?

Syfte:

• Lägga upp en plan för att inventera växtligheten inom anläggningen, samt genomföra och rapportera inventeringen.
• Att ge eventuella förslag på åtgärder för att ytterligare öka det ekologiska värdet inom grönytorna.

Omfattning: Huvuddelen av examensarbetet kan ske sommaren 2026 och anpassas för att fungera för såväl kandidat- som masternivå. Arbetet kräver att du är villig att vara ute i fält och att du har erfarenhet av att artbestämma vilda växter.

Först till kvarn gäller.

Kontakt:

Helena Carnerup (kontaktperson ESS), helena.carnerup@ess.eu, 072-179 26 88

Stefan Andersson, stefan.andersson@biol.lu.se (kontaktperson LU), 0760-200568

Mer information

Om ESS

European Spallation Source (ESS) är en tvärvetenskaplig forskningsanläggning under uppbyggnad i Lund, med ett datahanterings- och programvarucenter beläget utanför Köpenhamn.

Efter färdigställandet 2028 kommer ESS att vara en av världens mest kraftfulla acceleratorbaserade neutronkällor för att studera olika materials struktur och beteende på atomnivå. Forskningsanläggningen kommer att spela en avgörande roll för att säkerställa den långsiktiga konkurrenskraften för europeisk forskning och industri. Forskare från både akademi och industri över hela världen kommer att använda ESS-anläggningen för att lära sig mer om material och biologiska system, göra nya upptäckter och driva innovativa lösningar för att hantera globala utmaningar inom till exempel energi, sjukvård och hållbarhet.

ESS finansieras av 13 europeiska medlemsländer: Tjeckien, Danmark, Estland, Frankrike, Tyskland, Ungern, Italien, Norge, Polen, Spanien, Sverige, Schweiz och Storbritannien.

Landskap för biologisk mångfald

Hållbarhet är ett av våra kärnvärden och grundläggande för ESS, både vad gäller den forskning som kommer att utföras vid anläggningen och själva byggandet och driften av anläggningen.

Hela byggprocessen, inklusive anläggande av grönytor, har haft ett hållbarhetsfokus för att minimera miljöpåverkan och möjliggöra avveckling och restaurering av området när platsen har nått sin livslängd. Under den tid som ESS lånar jordbruksmarken för forskningsändamål förändras fastighetens ekosystemtjänster från livsmedelsförsörjning till ekosystemstöd. Den produktiva monokulturen byts ut mot ökad biologisk mångfald.

En ekologisk inventering genomfördes på området innan beslut fattades om hur landskapsområdena skulle utformas. Inventeringen visade att området före byggandet dominerades av monokulturella jordbruksområden. Generellt sett fanns det inga habitat eller ekologiska system som inte skulle vara möjliga att restaurera, och inga områden hade höga ekologiska värden.

För att förbättra områdets ekologiska värde har topografin förändrats till en mer varierande terräng och växter har valts för att passa in i närområdet. Terrängen, dammarna och vegetationen skapar en variation av livsmiljöer med olika mikroklimat, gömställen, möjligheter att hitta vatten och föda, gröna korridorer och boplatser. Blommande och fruktbärande arter har valts för att gynna pollinerande insekter, bin och fåglar, medan grunda dammar förbättrar levnadsförhållandena för groddjur.

Resurser från ESS

• Kontaktperson: Helena Carnerup, helena.carnerup@ess.eu, 072-179 26 88
• Skriftlig information om hur anläggningens grönytor har planerats och anlagts
• Startmöte på ESS:
  • Presentation av anläggningen och verksamheten
  • Historik – hur vi kommit dit vi är nu
  • Praktiska detaljer inför arbetet
  • Rundvandring
• Planeringsmöten tillsammans med Helena och ansvarig för skötsel av grönytorna
• Access till anläggningen, cyklar för att ta sig fram inom området mm

Mer information om EES finns här: https://ess.eu/,   https://ess.eu/sites/default/files/files/document/2025-06/ESS_AR_2024.pdf,   https://ess.eu/building-project/site-architecture-energy

Opportunity to investigate the drivers of the first flights of white-tailed eagle chicks tracked using data loggers. You will have the opportunity to analyze pre-existing data and may have the opportunity for fieldwork.

You are encouraged to spend some or all of your time at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR) in Nuuk. GINR has tight knit and vibrant student environment, and while in Nuuk, you can explore the local nature and Greenlandic society. You will also gain experience at a governmental research institution that provides scientific advice for policy decisions. You may also have the opportunity to join local fieldtrips organized by other researchers at GINR.

You will be a member of the Animal Navigation Lab at LU and the terrestrial ecology group at GINR and are expected to attend weekly meetings for each group for the duration of your thesis.

Aim of the study: Using GPS and accelerometry data to understand how eagles undertake their first flights and use the environment during fledging.

Methods used: Fieldwork and GPS data loggers. GPS and remote sensing data combined with spatial analyses, GIS, and R.

Most suitable background knowledge is a combination of animal ecology and ornithology. However, it is possible to adapt the project for candidates with more or less ecology or ornithology experience.

Possibility for fieldwork: Fieldwork consists of driving small boats to eagle territories and walking up to 10 km daily while off trail in variable terrain and with a 20 kg backpack. Sleeping in tents, often in wilderness conditions (no toilet, running water, mobile service, or internet). Experience rappelling/abseiling or boating is a plus.

Duration: 45 or 60 ECTS (60 ECTS if fieldwork is included)

Application date: Open until filled, latest application date February 1, 2026. If no fieldwork, 3 months before intended start date.

Start date: Summer (June/July) 2026 if fieldwork included. September 2026, if no fieldwork.

Contact:

Please include “eagle MSc project” in subject line of first email.

Supervisor: Dr. Nicholas Huffeldt, nicholas_per.huffeldt@biol.lu.se

Faculty supervisor: Prof. Susanne Åkesson, susanne.akesson@biol.lu.se

The AukLab-Audio project represents a cutting-edge, long-term data collection effort at the Stora Karlsö Auk Lab, a unique cliff-edge observatory for common guillemots (Uria aalge) in the Baltic Sea. This initiative is generating an unprecedented multi-channel, multi-modal dataset, featuring continuous, synchronized audio recordings from an array of high-quality DPA microphones and camera-integrated microphones, alongside extensive video footage, weather data, and other sensor information. The richness of this dataset opens up unparalleled opportunities for research at the intersection of bioacoustics, machine learning, and marine ecology.

We are excited to offer four interconnected Master’s thesis projects designed to explore different facets of this unique dataset. These projects aim to foster a collaborative research environment, where students will contribute distinct expertise towards a unified goal: to deepen our understanding of guillemot vocal behavior, develop novel computational analysis techniques for complex acoustic scenes, and derive new ecological insights. A potential research field trip to the Stora Karlsö research site may be organized to provide students with first-hand experience of the data collection environment and the study species.

Read more and apply here

The EU’s new nature restoration law and Sweden’s biodiversity targets put strong emphasis on recovering semi-natural grasslands and open habitats – systems that store carbon and host pollinators and other species. However, they depend on well-timed grazing to maintain their potential to host these species. Many of those areas are in need for restoration and would be considered to be included in new restoration projects. Yet verifying where and when nature restoration occurs is difficult; field inspections are expensive and sparse, and self-reports are noisy. Earth observation (EO) can potentially streamline this significantly – satellites like Sentinel-2 provide free, multi-spectral imagery every few days over all of Sweden. The challenge, and opportunity, is to turn these raw time series into operational, trustworthy signals about restoration on the ground.

The thesis is part of the 2-year ongoing project “AI-based remote sensing for monitoring nature restoration and landscape elements at farm level” (https://www.rymdstyrelsen.se/innovation/beviljade-bidrag/rymdtillampningsprogrammet-2024-3/ai-basera…), where Arla is a key actor and stakeholder, and with stakeholders also including the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

Related reading:

• EU Nature Restoration Regulations: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/nature-and-biodiversity/nature-restoration-regulation_en
• Swedish Board of Agriculture about nature restoration (Swedish): https://jordbruksverket.se/vaxter/odling/biologisk-mangfald/naturrestaurerings-forordningen
• The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency about nature restoration (Swedish): https://www.naturvardsverket.se/amnesomraden/mark-och-vattenanvandning/eu-forordning-for-att-restaur…

Description

In this master thesis, you will develop and train machine learning (ML) models for monitoring nature restoration in Swedish pastures, based on multi-year time series of satellite data. The work will include e.g. (i) preprocess existing nature restoration data to make it ML-ready; (ii) develop and implement ML method(s) in modern AI frameworks such as PyTorch; (iii) train and evaluate the ML methods and compare results with simpler / non-ML-based approaches.
The work requires students with skills in machine learning, image processing, and preferably also remote sensing, GIS and/or ecology. You will be expected to start out with a literature study, then begin with simpler models and eventually extend or develop more advanced solutions. As this is a master thesis project with a research organization, we will help you reach a high level of research excellence, and a successful project will ideally result in writing a joint research paper in addition to the master thesis.

Read more about the project at Master’s thesis; Machine learning and Earth observation data for monitoring nature restoration | RISE

The red mason bee, Osmia bicornis (syn. rufa), is a solitary bee that is found in most of Europe. They are important generalist pollinators for spring and early summer plants and are widely used for pollination of agricultural crops. Like many insects, there is a great degree of uncertainty as to how the red mason bee will cope with the increasing temperatures caused by climate change. Since these bees are gentle, nest in aggregations, and happily settle in bee hotels, they are excellent subjects for scientific study. We have used this to our advantage to investigate how climate change will affect red mason bee development, by simulating different climate warming scenarios in temperature-controlled bee hotels.

What you will do:

After gathering pollen samples from bee nesting tubes, you will process the samples using state-of-the-art image processing software to identify them to the degree possible. You will investigate whether and how the pollen provisioning of the red mason bee changes with nest site temperatures. Specific areas of interest are: how pollen composition changes over time, how a mother allocates pollen resources across her offspring, and if pollen resources are different between bee hotel locations. Although pollen analysis is an essential part of the project, no prior experience with pollen or advanced image analysis is required.

Supervision:

You will work with Katherine Mihalczo (PhD student) under the supervision of Ola Olsson in a joint project with the Thermal Biology and Biodiversity and Conservation Science research groups. We will work together to tailor the project to your interests and establish research questions. If this project sounds interesting to you, please reach out to Katherine (katherine.mihalczo@biol.lu.se) or Ola (ola.olsson@biol.lu.se)!

Estimated start date: February/March 2026

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