Postdoctoral fellow in Tropical Ecology & Conservation
Deadline: 15.12.2023
Norwegian University of Life Sciences
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About The Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management
The Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA) works with nature and the environment, sustainable use of natural resources, biological and geological processes.
MINA’s employees undertake teaching, research and dissemination within the fields of geology, hydrology and limnology, soil science, environmental chemistry, forestry, ecology, natural resource management, renewable energy, and nature-based tourism.
Our vision is to be a key actor in knowledge production and dissemination, and our goal is to deliver research of high, international quality, and varied and excellent teaching.
The faculty’s employees are significant participants within their respective fields of expertise, both nationally and internationally. The faculty is dominated by a vital research culture and high levels of scientific production.
The faculty has about 200 employees, 90 PhD students and 650 students.
Do you have experience from surveys of large vertebrates in the Amazon and analysing such data?
About the position
Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA) at Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) has a vacant 2-year post-doctoral position. The position is funded by the Research Council of Norway.
The project, the ABC Expeditions, combine tropical forest inventories and a comprehensive set of quantitative multi-taxa biodiversity surveys to assess the species composition and turnover of vertebrates, invertebrates and plants at remote forest sites across the Brazilian Amazon. The project also assesses the aboveground carbon stocks.
Crosscutting all major interfluvial regions and endemic areas of the Amazon basin within Brazil, its biogeographic coverage and contribution to biodiversity knowledge is unprecedented. In particular, the project uses a cross-scale approach to understand the large-scale spatial and environmental partitioning of biodiversity in Amazonian forests and shed new light on questions related to the long-term dynamics of tropical forest carbon budget, conservation planning in the Pan-Amazon region, and the spatial organization of plant and animal diversity in the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems.
Main tasks
The post-doc will be highly ambitious and focus on the midsized to large (terrestrial and arboreal) forest vertebrates sampled during the ABC Expeditions. Major tasks will include analysis of line-transect survey, camera trapping, bioacoustics and molecular (eDNA and iDNA) data at different biogeographic scales. There will also be an opportunity to relate large vertebrates and other key project components, including LiDAR measurements of forest profiles and a number of other environmental gradients, and use molecular data to examine the completeness of rapid biodiversity surveys.
Competence
Required Academic qualifications
A PhD degree within a relevant scientific area (e.g. ecology)
Good English skills
Accomplished in writing and statistics
Ecological research experience from Neotropical forests
The following experiences and skills will be emphasized:
Excellent knowledge of rapid biodiversity surveys in tropical forests, including hands-on experience with a broad range of large vertebrate monitoring approaches, such as line-transect surveys, camera trapping, ecoacoustic monitoring and eDNA sampling)
Excellent handling skills of data collected via these monitoring approaches
Solid methodological, analytical and quantitative skills, including modelling and programming proficiency in R
Strong record of publication in peer-reviewed journals
You need to:
Document excellent collaborative skills (ability to establish contacts, and cooperate with other institutions and persons)
Be results-oriented, focused and dedicated to ensure that target project outputs are completed and published in a timely fashion.
Be creative and experienced with science dissemination
Remuneration and further information
The position is placed in government pay scale position code 1352 Postdoctoral Fellow, wage framework 24 (salary grade 62-77) (NOK 604.900 - 796.600) depending on qualifications. The position follows ordinary meriting regulations.
To apply online for this vacancy, please click on the 'Apply for this job' button above. This will route you to the University's Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.
Application deadline: 15.12.2023
Your CV must be entered in JobbNorge's CV form and not just included as an attachment. This is to be able to comply with the regulations of §15 of the Public Administration Act.
Up to ten publications selected by the applicant as most relevant must be attached to the application. If it is difficult to identify the contribution of the applicant in multiple-author publications, a short explanation about the applicant’s part of the work is suggested.
Printed material which cannot be sent electronically should be sent by surface mail to Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, within 17.12.2023. Please quote reference number 23/05200.
Applicants invited for an interview will be asked to present verified copies of diplomas and certificates.
Please note that the report from the expert committee will be sent to all applicants.
