Doktorsneminn okkar Mathilde Defourneaux leitar eftir aðila til að aðstoða við rannsóknir frá 25. ágúst til 10. september. Verkefni Mathilde snýr að því að meta áhrif grasbíta á vistkerfi á heimskautasvæðum. Mathilde er að vinna á hálendinu á austurlandi eða í Fljótsdal.
"I am looking for a field assistant from the 25th of August to the 10th of September. The field assistant will help me collecting data for my PhD project which is part of a bigger international project (TUNDRAsalad), looking at the effect of changes in herbivore communities on the functionality of the Tundra.
The PhD itself is focussing on Iceland and aims to both 1) estimate the contribution of the different herbivores to the nutrient pool in the Icelandic highlands (how much nutrient they implement to the system and how their movement is actively affecting the nutrient redistribution in the landscape) and 2) investigate how different sources of dung can affect dung decomposition and the nutrient transfer to the soil, as well as the invertebrates communities feeding on it.
Fieldwork is conducted in the Eastern highlands, mainly in Fljótsdalshreppur and is focussing on 4 main herbivore species (reindeer, sheep, pink footed goose and whooper swan). It involves various protocols from plants, soil and dung sampling for both nutrient and DNA analysis, as well as estimating primary productivity and herbivore offtakes using pinpoint frame and exclusion cages.
There is also an experiment which have been set to sample coprophagous invertebrates feeding on sheep and goose dung and estimate invertebrate contribution to dung removal.
All fieldwork is conducted in the highlands under various weather conditions, and it involves camping or staying in little huts, which can be challenging"
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