Education at the Doctoral School

An applicant accepted in the admission process becomes a doctoral student of the Doctoral School at the University of Silesia in Katowice and implements an interdisciplinary education program (https://us.edu.pl/szkola-doktorska/en/program-ksztalcenia/), participates in the research work of the Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, and conducts classes with students.

The PhD student's supervisor will be dr hab. Gabriela Woźniak, prof. UŚ.

The education lasts 4 years (8 semesters). Education aims to obtain a doctoral degree awarded by the University of Silesia in Katowice.

The doctoral student is implementing their project as an international doctorate, in cooperation with universities of the Transform4Europe consortium. Some tasks are carried out at a partner university with designated advisers.

Project description

The spontaneous ecosystem processes of the mineral extraction areas are dependent on the vegetation built by the non-analogous species composition. The plant individuals colonizing the oligotrophic mineral habitats are shaping the composition of the soil organisms. Soil biota play crucial roles in regulating soil biogeochemical cycle, including carbon sequestration and aboveground biodiversity. This is mainly due to the fact that different plant species affect the physical and chemical properties of the soil, the chemical composition of the litter, detritus supply and rooting depth differently. There is little knowledge of soil microbial communities and their activities in the different plant communities of mineral extraction areas, especially with regard to the influence of soil micro-food web on soil carbon sequestration. The soil micro-food web is the most fundamental component of the soil food web, which is a network of consumer-resource relationships formed by soil biota through complex interactions such as predation, competition, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, neutralism, and amensalism. The main components of the soil micro-food web are microorganisms, protists and nematodes. Soil microorganisms are influenced by their trophic position in the soil food web, where the bottom-up effect refers to a lower trophic level affecting the community structure of higher levels via physiochemical resource availability, whereas top-down effects refer to organisms at higher tropic levels impacting community structure through predation. Such complex interactions among soil biota can be reconstructed into ecological networks, with species acting as nodes and their connections acting as links, using a correlation-based approach with taxa occurrence and abundance data to define species interactions and ecosystem dynamics.

Full call with requirements and criteria

See the file: The-role-of-spontaneous-vegetation-1.pdf

Qualification criteria

The admission procedure consists of two stages

Stage I: assessment of the candidate's documents:

1. Assessment of the outline of a research proposal (0-3 points)

2. Assessment of the candidate's scientific achievements (0-2 points)

To qualify for the second stage, a candidate must obtain at least 3 points.

Stage II: interview

The interview assesses the candidate's predispositions for scientific work, knowledge of the required scope, level and use of English in scientific communication (total 0-5 points)

To complete the interview with a positive result, you must score at least 3 points.

After completing the interviews, the commission prepares a ranking list based on the points obtained at both stages of qualification, as well as a list of candidates who did not obtain qualifications due to a negative result at the first or second stage. Qualification for the Doctoral School is granted to the candidate who comes first on the ranking list.