This research investigates integrated climate-smart strategies for sustainable weed management and crop adaptation across contrasting climatic regions. The central hypothesis is that electric weeding and mulching can reduce dependence on herbicides while maintaining effective weed control and improving soil health and agroecosystem resilience. Multi-site field trials will compare electric weeding, conventional chemical control, untreated plots or mulching systems in crop rotations under diverse temperature, rainfall and drought conditions.
The study will assess weed density, biomass and community composition, crop growth and yield, and tolerance to climate-related stress using physiological and molecular traits. It will also quantify impacts on soil microbial biodiversity, aggregate stability and organic matter. In parallel, beneficial microorganisms will be isolated from soils and plant-associated habitats in different climatic areas, screened for plant growth-promoting and stress-mitigating traits, and tested as microbial biostimulants, alone or in combination with the most effective weed-management practices.
By integrating agronomy, soil ecology, microbiology and climate adaptation, the project will develop evidence-based solutions to reduce chemical inputs, protect soil biodiversity and enhance the resilience and sustainability of cropping systems under climate change.
The candidate should have skills in field experimentation, weed and vegetation surveys, plant identification, soil and plant sampling, and statistical analysis of ecological and agronomic data. Experience with R, GIS, biodiversity indices, multivariate analyses, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, software development using Phyton or other programming languages, and scientific writing for peer-reviewed publications is desirable. Laboratory skills in microbiology, including the isolation and screening of beneficial microorganisms, will be required or developed during the PhD. English is required; Italian is useful for fieldwork.
The student will work with the main supervisor, Dr Elisa Pellegrino, and will have the opportunity to collaborate with other researchers at the Institute of Crop Science of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, including Prof. Laura Ercoli, i, as well as with partner farms involved in field trials. The project will also benefit from an international network involving Prof. Marcelo Moretti at Oregon State University, Dr Christian Thierfelder at CIMMYT in Harare, Zimbabwe, Dr Bouba Traoré at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Bakomo, Mali, Dr Helena Gómez-Macpherson at CSIC in Córdoba, Spain, and Prof. Gernot Bodner at BOKU University in Vienna, Austria.