We invite applications from prospective postdoctoral candidates to join our research project, "Contemporary Rapid Evolution: Dynamics and Persistence in Complex Ecological Communities", supported by the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Interested candidates should contact us directly (Nelson Hairston, Jr., [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Stephen Ellner, [EMAIL PROTECTED]) with a brief statement of your background and interests, attaching your CV and providing contact information for 2 persons who could provide letters of reference.
Our broad goal is to understand the proximate and ultimate factors responsible for general patterns of population variability, such as the ubiquity of stability and cycles and the rarity of more complex dynamical patterns. Work to date has centered on predator-prey (rotifer-algal) microcosms having the potential to exhibit a wide range of qualitative dynamics. Tightly linked experimental and theoretical studies have allowed us to show that feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary processes play an essential role in determining the system's dynamic properties. Future directions for experimental and theoretical work include: relationships between genetic variability and ecological dynamics; more complex experimental communities; management implications of rapid evolution; and extending the work to natural aquatic communities. Additional information is at www.jsmf.org/grants/d.php?id=2007006. We can provide at least 2 years of postdoc salary with a start date as early at September 1, 2008 and as late as January 1, 2009. The postdoc will have primary responsibility for planning and conducting microcosm experiments and for training and supervising undergraduate assistants on the project, but will be a full participant in all aspects of the project, both theoretical and experimental. Previous experience with aquatic microcosm/mesocosms will be helpful, but is not essential. Representative publications from this research: Yoshida, T., Ellner, S. P., Jones, L. E., Bohannan, B. J. M., Lenski, R. E., Hairston, N. G., Jr. 2007. Cryptic population dynamics: rapid evolution masks trophic interactions. PLOS Biology 5:1868-1879. Jones, L. E. and S. P. Ellner. 2007. Effects of rapid prey evolution on predator-prey cycles. J Math Biol 55:541-573 Fussmann, G. G., S. P. Ellner, N. G. Hairston, Jr., L. E. Jones, K. W. Shertzer, and T. Yoshida. 2006. Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of experimental plankton communities. Advances in Ecological Research 37:221-243. Yoshida, T., N. G. Hairston, Jr., and S. P. Ellner. 2004. Evolutionary tradeoff between defense against grazing and competitive ability in a simple unicellular alga, Chlorella vulgaris. Proc Royal Soc London B 271:1947-1953. T. Yoshida, L.E. Jones, S.P. Ellner, G.F. Fussmann, and N. G. Hairston, Jr. 2003. Rapid evolution drives ecological dynamics in a predator-prey system. Nature 424: 303-306. G. F. Fussmann, S.P. Ellner, and N.G. Hairston, Jr. 2003. Evolution as a critical component of plankton dynamics. Proc Royal Soc London B 270: 1015-1022. S.P. Ellner and G.F. Fussmann. 2003. Effects of successional dynamics on metapopulation persistence. Ecology, 84: 882889. Shertzer, K.W., S.P. Ellner, G.F. Fussmann, and N.G. Hairston, Jr. 2002. Predator-prey cycles in an aquatic microcosm: testing hypotheses of mechanism. Journal of Animal Ecology 71: 802815. Shertzer, K.W. and S.P. Ellner. 2002. Energy storage and the evolution of population dynamics. J Theor Biol 215, 183200. G. Fussmann, S.P. Ellner, K.W. Shertzer, and N.G. Hairston, Jr. 2000. Crossing the Hopf bifurcation in a live predator-prey system. Science 290: 1358-1360.
