Biology Education

Several master’s projects in the physiology and behavior of avian heat tolerance  

We are interested in understanding why individual birds differ in their physiological responses to heat stress and how these differences influence temperature tolerance, behaviour and reproductive investment.  Several MSc theses of durations ranging 30-60 ECTS credits are available within this general framework, all based on research on European quail kept in captivity. In addition to performing hands-on research, each project will include formal and informal training in research animal ethics and practice.

Two topics of particular relevance are listed below.

The mitochondrial basis of avian heat tolerance 

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of animal cells, producing more than 90% of the energy that the body needs to function (ATP; adenosine triphosphate). We are interested in understanding how temperature affects mitochondrial function and whether variation in the thermal sensitivity of mitochondria contributes to differences in whole-organism heat tolerance. Recent work suggests that the environment affects how mitochondria respond to higher-than-normal (“hyperthermic”) body temperature, with important implications for energy metabolism and animal performance under heat exposure. The aim of this project is to investigate how mitochondrial function changes across biologically relevant body temperatures and whether these responses vary among individuals or populations. The master’s student will conduct laboratory measurements of mitochondrial respiration and related bioenergetic traits using blood cells and potentially other tissues and analyse the resulting data to ultimately assess how mitochondrial thermal sensitivity relates to organismal performance during heat exposure. 

Behavioral correlates of heat tolerance phenotypes 

We are interested in the question of whether behavioral phenotypes covary with heat tolerance in endotherms.  Standard methods of measuring heat tolerance do not include a behavioral component, whereas behavior is expected to be an important mediator of free-living endotherms’ performance in the heat.  The aim of this project is to clarify whether selective pressures for higher heat tolerance may directly or indirectly alter the frequencies of different behavioral phenotypes within a population.  We are running artificial selection for heat tolerance on a captive population of European quail, and the master’s student will help design and conduct behavioral assays for these birds. Specifically, the student will quantify behavioral data and assess the repeatability of behaviors and their potential correlations with heat tolerance phenotypes. The student may have or develop skills in machine learning during the project, though this element is optional. Required training in bird handling and laboratory animal ethics will be provided.

For more information, please contact:

Andreas Nord (principal investigator, andreas.nord@biol.lu.se) or Samantha Duhé Jones (PhD student, samantha.duhe_jones@biol.lu.se)

Migratory birds that fly during the day and night- time tend to fly at much higher altitudes during the day. These high-altitude flights may be driven by heating from the sun such that birds fly to higher, cooler altitudes during the day to thermoregulate. Many birds are impacted by high daytime temperatures and, ascending to 3-4km to avoid high air temperatures. However, several species reach very high altitudes, above 5-76km, during the day and it is unknown if this is driven by thermoregulatory demands. This project will increase our understanding on if birds climb to these seemingly extreme daytime altitudes as a response to added heating from solar radiation.

This project is available to a motivated Master’s student interested in studying how migratory birds maintain homeostasis while flying and how this can affect their decisions in flight. The successful student will acquire skills in modelling processes of heat exchange, use specialized equipment for measuring feather properties, and work with a museum directly to collect data, in addition to building writing and data analysis skills. This project has flexibility in its direction within the area described spanning topics from thermal biology, physiological ecology, and behaviour.

Project aims

The aim of this project is to understand the scope of impact that solar radiation may have on the heat balance of flying birds.

This project will involve using data collected from wind tunnel studies to provide baseline estimates, and data collected by you from a museum collection of migratory birds to quantify the impact of solar radiation on flying birds under different environmental conditions. Through this topic, you will explore the properties of feathers that influence heat balance to understand how these factors can affect birds while flying and at high-altitude. The focus of the project will be determined by you in collaboration with your supervisors.

Interested?

This project is appropriate for a 30-60 credit Master’s thesis. You should be willing to commute to a museum for some data collection during the project. Applicants should also have a background in biology with courses in physiology and ecology, and some familiarity with using R. Courses in physics are an asset but not essential.

If you are interested, please email us:

• Kevin Young (kevin.young@biol.lu.se)
• Sissel Sjöberg (sissel.sjoberg@biol.lu.se)
• Andreas Nord (andreas.nord@biol.lu.se)

We are offering projects for motivated Master’s students that will investigate the ecological and genetic basis of colour polymorphism in the shrill carder bee (Bombus sylvarum). This study system is flexible in approach, with the opportunity to combine various topics and methods, including evolutionary ecology, genetics, thermal biology and behavioural biology.

Bumblebees display striking variation in colour patterns, which may influence fitness through thermoregulation, predator avoidance and behaviour. The shrill carder bee is particularly interesting as it occurs in two clearly distinct colour morphs – a light and a dark morph – that show partly different geographic distributions across Scandinavia. Recent work by us showed that the colour polymorphism in the species is bimodal rather than continuous, that the two morphs differ in their geographic distributions, and that a few closely linked SNPs are strongly associated with morph. Together, these findings suggest a simple genetic basis, potentially involving adaptation to local environments or thermoregulation.

Project aims and possible directions

The overall aim is to better understand why and how colour polymorphism is maintained in the shrill carder bee. Fieldwork will take place primarily in July. Depending on your interests, the project may include field sampling in south/middle Sweden, behavioural observations in the field, experiments on thermal biology and heat/cold tolerance, quantitative analysis of colouration, population genetics, or environmental and climate analyses. The exact focus will be defined together with you, allowing substantial scope for independent ideas and project development. The project is suitable as a 30-60 credit Master’s thesis. Applicants should have a background in biology, preferably with courses in ecology, evolution, physiology, or genetics. A driver’s licence is helpful but not essential.

Interested?
If you are interested, please contact any of us to discuss the project in more detail:

Bengt Hansson (bengt.hansson@biol.lu.se)

Andreas Nord (andreas.nord@biol.lu.se)

Simon Jacobsen Ellerstrand (simon.jacobsen_ellerstrand@biol.lu.se)

Katherine Mihalczo (katherine.mihalczo@biol.lu.se)

Over the past 70 years, agricultural landscapes and cropping systems have simplified in the EU, leading to environmental externalities and expansion of input-based agriculture [1]. In order to decrease the contribution of the agricultural sector to the climate and biodiversity crises, as well as improving the sustainability of farms and the whole food system, increasing the diversity of crop types could be a way towards a sustainable agricultural sector [2].

Increasing the diversity of crop types in crop rotations can for example increase natural soil fertility, weed and pest control [3, 4]. Additionally, increased spatial diversity of crop types can favor natural enemies (NE) of crop pests and weeds, by favoring a diversity of landscape-scale ecological processes [5]. While crop diversity is mostly measured at the landscape scale in ecological studies, little is known about what farmers can expect from introducing new crops in their farm. As landscapes are made of a several farms, each farm’s cropping pattern likely influence landscape-wide crop diversity [6]. The surrounding crop diversity of a farm should therefore affect how its individual diversification trajectory can support ecosystem processes.

Aims
The objectives of this project are to:

• Explore the relative contribution of farm- and landscape-scale crop diversity on multiple indicators of biodiversity conservation (arable flora and carabid beetles) and ecosystem service provision (weed control, abundance of seed and pest eating carabid beetles, soil organic carbon and crop yield).
• Design farm-relevant options for crop diversification depending on the production context

Methodology
The candidate will make use of an already existing dataset (weed pressure, soil organic matter and insect & plant diversity) that was collected in summer 2025 in 24 Scanian arable farms (120 sampling sites), differing in farm and landscape-scale crop diversity. The candidate will contribute to:

• Gathering additional environmental and agronomic data about farms’ production context based on farm questionnaires and land use databases.
• Depending on the candidate’s profile, identification of carabid beetle specimens collected on the field, assisted by entomologists from the Biology department
• Using statistical models, analyze the relative contribution of farm- vs landscape-scale crop diversity on the different indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• Extract crop rotations and explore their effects compared with spatial crop diversity

This subject is designed for longer projects (45-60 credits).

Supervision
The candidate will benefit from the supervision of Romain Carrié (researcher in Agronomy and Agroecology) and the collaborative working environment of MGeo (landscape ecologists and environmental scientists).

Required profile
Studies in agroecology, agronomy, ecology or environmental sciences with a strong interest for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services in agroecosystems.

Contact
Romain Carrié, romain.carrie@mgeo.lu.se

References

1. Emmerson, M. et al. (2016). Advances in ecological research (Vol. 55, pp. 43–97).
2. Beillouin, D. et al. (2021). Global Change Biology, 27(19), 4697–4710.
3. Martin, G. et al. (2020). Agron. Sustain. Dev. 40(3).
4. Bennett, A. et al. (2011). Biological reviews 87(1).
5. Sirami, C. et al. (2019). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(33)
6. Schiller, J. et al. (2026). Agricultural Systems, vol. 234

Main goal: The main goal of the project is to understand how pore scale fungal calcium carbonate precipitation contributes to material properties.

Description:

Concrete is the world’s most widely used human-made material, yet its production is responsible for significant environmental impacts: generation of hazardous airborne dust, high energy consumption, and substantial CO₂ emissions. Given the impracticality of replacing concrete, our study proposes a sustainable alternative—concrete crack healing using fungi—to prevent reinforcement corrosion and thereby extend structural service life, ultimately reducing carbon output.

The method using fungi to repair cracks involves Microbial-Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP). MICP is a natural process in which microorganisms precipitate calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), thereby sealing cracks and reinforcing concrete surfaces

Because cement-based materials are opaque, directly observing microbial growth and mineral precipitation within cracks is challenging. To address this, we will use a high-resolution 3D X-ray microscope to visualize fungal mycelium development and calcium carbonate precipitation in porous materials. This imaging approach will help reveal how pore-scale biological processes contribute to the overall properties and durability of the material.

As part of this project, you will work with fungal bioreactor and high resolution 3D x-ray tomograph. Training in all of these techniques will be provided. The candidate must be proficient in standard microbiological methods, including sterile inoculation and nutrient medium preparation.

This project is interdisciplinary task within biology and engineering. You will primarily work with Dr. Hanbang Zou. This project is designed for a MSc student (optimal 60 cr).

Start Date: Flexible

Contact information:

Hanbang Zou: Hanbang.zou@biol.lu.se

Join Our Field Research Team This Spring on Öland! 🌿🐦

We are looking for up to two enthusiastic internship students to join us for a two-month field season exploring evolutionary ecology, sensory ecology, and climate change.

You’ll become part of our team monitoring natural populations of pied and collared flycatchers, including their hybrids, on the beautiful Swedish island of Öland, near Kalmar.

Position Details:

• 📍 Location: Öland, Sweden
• 📅 Dates: Field season runs May 1 – July 1. We prefer you to be there the whole season, with arrival on site between April 26 and May 1.
• 👥 Positions: 2 interns (internship or applied work)
• 🏛️ Institution: Uppsala University (open to students from Lund University)

This year’s activities include:

• Fieldwork & Data Collection – Monitor nest boxes, ring and measure chicks, and collect blood samples as part of our long-term population study
• Behavioral Assays – Conduct cognitive tests with individual birds near nest boxes and in aviaries using standardized research methods
• Foraging Ecology – Analyse behavioural data and explore links between individual performance and foraging preferences in caterpillar-rich trees
• Field Observations – Set up remote video cameras to document bird visitation rates to individual trees
• Chemical Sampling – Collect branch samples for later analysis of IH-BVOCs

Depending on the length and timing of your internship, there may also be opportunities for lab work.

This is a unique chance to gain serious hands-on research experience, contribute to ongoing research, and spend your spring outdoors.

Interested? Get in touch!

Michaëla Berdougo (PhD student) – michaela.berdougo@ebc.uu.se

Read more about the Qvarnström lab