Doctoral position on the study of Mediterranean post-fire ecosystems M/F

Job Description

Thesis Subject

While plant resilience after wildfires has traditionally been studied at the organismal level, recent research suggests that plants and their associated microbial communities form an integrated functional entity—the plant holobiont—whose chemical interactions and collective metabolism play a decisive role in adapting to environmental disturbances. The MULTICHEM-HOLO project aims to test the hypothesis that post-fire resilience is an emergent property of this holobiont, resulting from dynamic interactions between the plant, its microbiome, and their specialized metabolites. To address this question, the project will develop an integrative approach combining chemical ecology, microbiome analysis, multimodal metabolomics, and artificial intelligence to identify molecular signatures of resilience and decipher the underlying mechanisms of Mediterranean ecosystem recovery after wildfires.

- **Activity 1:** Field campaigns will be conducted in Mediterranean ecosystems in Greece and France.
- **Activity 2:** Plant tissues, rhizosphere, and surrounding soils will be sampled from burned and unburned sites to characterize ecological resilience and study the diversity and functional composition of associated microbial communities.
- **Activity 3:** Microbiome profiling, microbial culturomics, and multimodal metabolomics using LC-HRMS/MS, GC-MS/MS, and advanced NMR approaches.
- **Activity 4:** Multivariate statistics and machine learning to identify microbial and chemical biomarkers of resilience and reveal the interactions linking microbiome composition, specialized metabolism, and ecological restoration.
- **Activity 5:** Establish a proof of concept demonstrating that the holobiont is a functional element involved in plant resilience after wildfires.

Your Work Environment

This is an international PhD project involving three research units (ICMR and ECSN in France, and NPMC in Athens), with field sampling campaigns in France and Greece.

**Resources available (equipment, IT, etc.):**
Workstation, specialized software, analytical platform, chemistry and microbiology laboratories.

**Main contacts (CNRS internal and external network):**
JH Renault (ICMR), Véronique Eparvier (ICSN), Maria Halabalaki (NPMC, Athens).

The position is subject to the protection of scientific and technical potential (PPST) regulations. Therefore, in accordance with current regulations, your appointment must be authorized by the competent authority of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR).

Constraints and risks

The PhD candidate will work within three research teams (Reims, Gif-sur-Yvette, and Athens).
Field missions will be conducted as part of the project.

Compensation and benefits

Compensation

2300 € gross monthly

Annual leave and RTT

44 jours

Remote Working practice and compensation

Pratique et indemnisation du TT

Transport

Prise en charge à 75% du coût et forfait mobilité durable jusqu’à 300€

About the offer

About the CNRS

The CNRS is a major player in fundamental research on a global scale. The CNRS is the only French organization active in all scientific fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist allows it to bring together different disciplines to address the most important challenges of the contemporary world, in connection with the actors of change.

CNRS

The research professions