PhD Position on Seed Dispersal and Tropical Forest Succession (Seeds 4 Success)

This PhD position at Wageningen University offers an exciting opportunity to investigate the role of seed dispersal in shaping tropical forest succession, with a focus on restoration ecology. The successful candidate will join the Seeds 4 Success project, conducting fieldwork in Mexico and collaborating with an international team of supervisors and researchers. The project aims to understand how landscape context and animal seed dispersers influence the speed and direction of secondary forest regrowth, addressing key questions in plant-animal interactions and ecosystem restoration. The research will involve three complementary studies: a pantropical synthesis of seed dispersal and forest recovery, a landscape-level analysis in Mexican forests to assess the impact of landscape quality on animal dispersers and seed dispersal, and a seed addition experiment to quantify the importance of dispersal and tree establishment. The work is embedded within the Forest Ecology and Forest Management chair group at Wageningen University and is part of the PANTROP and REFOREST-IT! teams, led by Prof. Lourens Poorter and co-supervised by leading experts from both Wageningen and UNAM-Mexico. Key responsibilities include conducting field and data analysis work, publishing results in international journals, sharing findings with stakeholders, and contributing to MSc student supervision. The project will use advanced methods such as acoustic monitoring for bird and bat data collection and will contribute to a reference species database. The research is highly relevant for advancing successional theory and informing effective forest landscape restoration strategies, with significant implications for biodiversity and carbon recovery in tropical regions. Applicants should have a strong background in ecology or biology, experience with fieldwork (preferably in tropical environments), and proficiency in English. The position offers a stimulating academic environment and the chance to make a real-world impact on tropical forest restoration. For more information and to apply, visit the official application link.