POST-DOC OPPORTUNITY IN CONTINENTAL-SCALE AVIAN HABITAT MODELING
We seek a quantitative ecologist and modeller to join an NSERC-funded project on avian conservation in managed boreal forests. In partnership with industry and government, our goal is to forecast bird species responses to the landscape changes that occur through forestry activities at local, regional, and national extents. The successful candidate will work with a team of avian ecologists, forest scientists, statisticians and technical staff to forecast the consequences of alternate forest management and conservation plans and identify forest management practices that best support conservation goals. The forecasting tools will be implemented in SpaDES, a new system for spatial simulation in R (spades.predictiveecology.org). The major component of the work will be designing simulation experiments and ecological indicators to evaluate alternate forest management plans, estimate model forecast error, and design sampling regimes to reduce such errors.
Qualifications:
• Ph.D. in ecology, forestry, environmental sciences, applied mathematics, computer science, statistics, or a related field;
• High-level programming skills (e.g., R, Python);
• Experience with statistical modelling;
• Experience with spatial simulation modelling;
• Excellent oral and written communications skills, in English.
• Experience with any of the following are valuable assets: forest management planning methods and tools; conservation planning methodologies; wildlife-habitat or species distribution modelling; GIS; Remote Sensed data; workflow automation tools; French.
The direct supervisors will be Eliot McIntire (Pacific Forestry Centre, expertise in applied ecology, conservation and ecological forecasting) and Steven Cumming (Université Laval, expertise in forest landscape dynamics, avian habitat modelling, and spatial simulation). Additional collaborators include Erin Bayne (University of Alberta), Fréderic Raulier (Laval), and Marcel Darveau (Laval), post-doctoral fellows and graduate students across Canada, and government research scientists. The successful candidate will be team member of the Boreal Avian Modelling Project (BAM), a long term research program in the ecology and dynamics of avian populations and their habitats in the boreal forest of North America (see www.borealbirds.ca).
Location of tenure: The position will be located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, at the Pacific Forestry Centre, with travel to Quebec City (Université Laval) and/or Edmonton (University of Alberta) to work with collaborators. No field work is required.
Start date, duration, & compensation: The position will start as soon as possible. The duration is one year, renewable once based on performance. The annual salary is $53,161 Cdn plus benefits.
To Apply: Please provide a letter of interest, your CV, and an example of your writing skills in the form of a peerreviewed manuscript. Your letter should indicate how you meet each of the criteria, and state when you are able to start and when you can relocate to British Columbia. We will accept applications until a suitable candidate is found, but will begin reviewing as soon as the first is received. Send application packages to:
Nicole Barker, BAM Coordinating Scientist, nbarker@ualberta.ca
We seek a quantitative ecologist and modeller to join an NSERC-funded project on avian conservation in managed boreal forests. In partnership with industry and government, our goal is to forecast bird species responses to the landscape changes that occur through forestry activities at local, regional, and national extents. The successful candidate will work with a team of avian ecologists, forest scientists, statisticians and technical staff to forecast the consequences of alternate forest management and conservation plans and identify forest management practices that best support conservation goals. The forecasting tools will be implemented in SpaDES, a new system for spatial simulation in R (spades.predictiveecology.org). The major component of the work will be designing simulation experiments and ecological indicators to evaluate alternate forest management plans, estimate model forecast error, and design sampling regimes to reduce such errors.
Qualifications:
• Ph.D. in ecology, forestry, environmental sciences, applied mathematics, computer science, statistics, or a related field;
• High-level programming skills (e.g., R, Python);
• Experience with statistical modelling;
• Experience with spatial simulation modelling;
• Excellent oral and written communications skills, in English.
• Experience with any of the following are valuable assets: forest management planning methods and tools; conservation planning methodologies; wildlife-habitat or species distribution modelling; GIS; Remote Sensed data; workflow automation tools; French.
The direct supervisors will be Eliot McIntire (Pacific Forestry Centre, expertise in applied ecology, conservation and ecological forecasting) and Steven Cumming (Université Laval, expertise in forest landscape dynamics, avian habitat modelling, and spatial simulation). Additional collaborators include Erin Bayne (University of Alberta), Fréderic Raulier (Laval), and Marcel Darveau (Laval), post-doctoral fellows and graduate students across Canada, and government research scientists. The successful candidate will be team member of the Boreal Avian Modelling Project (BAM), a long term research program in the ecology and dynamics of avian populations and their habitats in the boreal forest of North America (see www.borealbirds.ca).
Location of tenure: The position will be located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, at the Pacific Forestry Centre, with travel to Quebec City (Université Laval) and/or Edmonton (University of Alberta) to work with collaborators. No field work is required.
Start date, duration, & compensation: The position will start as soon as possible. The duration is one year, renewable once based on performance. The annual salary is $53,161 Cdn plus benefits.
To Apply: Please provide a letter of interest, your CV, and an example of your writing skills in the form of a peerreviewed manuscript. Your letter should indicate how you meet each of the criteria, and state when you are able to start and when you can relocate to British Columbia. We will accept applications until a suitable candidate is found, but will begin reviewing as soon as the first is received. Send application packages to:
Nicole Barker, BAM Coordinating Scientist, nbarker@ualberta.ca