Orchids are vulnerable due to their specific habitat requirements and specialized relationships with both fungi and pollinators, and many species only exist in small and isolated populations. Orchids are often the center of focused conservation efforts, however we still lack fundamental knowledge on their long term viability in the fragmented modern landscape, and especially on how their dependency of specific orchid myccorhizal fungi and other microbionts effect their distribution and adaptability.

In our group at Center of Evolutionary Hologenomics at Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, we have several opportunities for MSc projects centering on orchids and their microbiomes. The projects will evolve from orchid population genomic data and from metagenomic data of their microbiomes – examples of projects could include conservation genomics of selected threatened species or investigating the relationship between orchid microbiomes of different species and their differential distribution and dispersal abilities. Laboratory work can potentially be included, and all projects will involve elements of bioinformatics and data analyses of large genomic datasets.

Starting dates are flexible. If you are interested, please contact ida.hartvig@sund.ku.dk