The Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) offers a full-time postdoctoral researcher position to support the research activities of Research Line (RL) 3 on Terrestrial Ecosystems, and specifically to work on the international project GorBEEa, funded by the European Commission through an ERC Consolidator grant.

RL 3 includes two Research Groups (RGs) and the postdoctoral researcher will be included within the RG 3.2: Global Change Impacts on Ecosystem Functioning and Services, which focuses on impacts of global change on biodiversity, species interactions, and ecosystem functioning and services in natural and agricultural landscapes. The goal of the RL is to provide a sound scientific base to improve and inform management practices.

About the project:
GorBEEa, led by Dr. Ainhoa Magrach, seeks to understand the drivers of functional stability at different levels of organization, and to understand the feedback loops that enable biodiversity to be maintained. GorBEEa combines multiple disciplines, from the use of theoretical network developments to predictive models, experimental approaches and empirical observations integrated in a framework to predict the consequences of different perturbations for natural communities and to provide input for future policy actions aiming at the conservation of functional landscapes. To this end, the project uses plant and pollinator communities and their interactions as a model system. A key component of the project involves the use of metabarcoding and genomic tools to characterize community composition and interaction networks, requiring strong bioinformatic expertise.

Job description
The postdoctoral researcher will play a central role in the bioinformatic and molecular analyses of the project, while also contributing to field data collection, manuscript preparation and the communication of results. The position offers excellent opportunities for further training and career development in molecular ecology and computational biology.

The project will involve the processing and analysis of metabarcoding datasets to characterize plant, pollinator and pollinator gut microbiota communities, the development and application of bioinformatic pipelines for DNA and RNA sequence analysis, network analysis, statistical modelling and simulations. Field activities will include data collection on plant-pollinator interaction frequencies, assessments of plant reproductive success, and plant biomass and richness estimates.

Key responsibilities
Lead the development and implementation of bioinformatic pipelines for the processing of metabarcoding and genomic data
Perform quality control, taxonomic assignment and downstream ecological analysis of DNA and RNA sequence data
Integrate molecular data with ecological network analyses to investigate drivers of stability in plant and pollinator communities
Collaborate in field data collection
Write and co-author scientific manuscripts
Present results at national and international conferences
Main requirements/skills:
PhD or equivalent in Biology, Bioinformatics, Environmental Sciences or a related field
Demonstrated experience in bioinformatic analysis, including the processing of metabarcoding or amplicon sequencing data (e.g., DADA2, QIIME2, OBITools or similar pipelines)
Proficiency in at least one scripting or programming language commonly used in bioinformatics (e.g., R, Python, Bash)
Previous laboratory experience in DNA extraction, PCR and library preparation
Keen interest in plant and pollinator communities and molecular ecology
Motivation, curiosity, creativity and strong ability for problem-solving through critical analytical thinking
Ability to work with a high degree of independence
Good communication skills, fluency in English, sense of teamwork and commitment to high-quality research
Driver’s license and previous experience driving a four-wheel drive vehicle
The position may require international travel on an as-needed basis
Desirable:

Experience with ecological network analysis
Familiarity with high-performance computing (HPC) environments
Previous experience working on plant-pollinator or similar community ecology projects
Fluency in Basque or Spanish