Job title: ECOLOGIST specialized in food web functioning in agroecosystems
Type of contract: Full-time permanent/open-ended
Opportunity location: Cotonou, Benin (after a few months of orientation
in Montpellier, France)
Closing date: 1 July 2011
Introduction
The Hortsys research unit of CIRAD is opening a permanent ecologist
position to contribute to develop innovative horticultural cropping
systems with better consideration of biological regulation in
agro-ecosystems. You will thus mobilize knowledge in ecological sciences
and combine it with knowledge in agronomy. At first, the research will
concern the management of fruit flies on mango and citrus orchards in
West Africa, focusing on the optimization of the structure and the
functioning of trees and habitats in relation to the ecological balance
between fruit flies, other fruit tree pests, weaver ants, and other
beneficial organisms.
Job description
Horticultural cropping systems are characterized by their great
vulnerability to bio-aggressors. This fragility causes a great
instability of systems, often compensated by the massive use of
pesticides, which is now under question for obvious reasons of
sustainability, particularly in terms of ecosystem and human health. The
development of resilient and sustainable cropping systems for non
pesticide-dependent integrated agricultural production, represents a
necessity and therefore a major objective for scientists today. The
mission of this ecologist is to answer three main research questions,
applied to fruit tree orchard ecosystems in West Africa:
(1) What are the interactions between the phenology of trees and fruit
production, the early attacks of sap-feeding insects, the visitation of
trees by weaver ants, and regulation (direct by predation or by
repulsion through the release of repellent semio-chemical substances)
exercised on fruit flies?
(2) What are the processes at play in the regulation observed?
(3) What are the designs (spatial and temporal organization of plant
species, particularly live crop covers and shrubs in the vicinity of
orchards and their management) that warrant the best trade-off between
the stability of the balance between communities, on the one hand, and
productivity on the other? Research activities are conducted in the
context of an established partnership with several African research
institutions and IITA.
Required qualifications:
Academic background (doctorate) in ecology, entomology or agronomy
Training, knowledge or post-doctoral experience desirable in functional
ecology, community ecology (preferably with emphasis on animals) or food
web ecology
Expertise in modelling, spatialstatistics and/or landscape ecology welcome.
Capacity/willingness for life as an expatriate and for carrying out
missions.
Capacity/willingness for field work (orchards and natural areas).
Tropical experience would be a plus.
Taste for multidisciplinary approaches.
Good command of French and English.
To Apply: Only online submission at
http://www.cirad.fr/emplois-stages/postes-a-pourvoir/chercheurs/ecologue-fonctionnement-des-reseaux-trophiques
You are invited to visit CIRAD's web site at http://www.cirad.fr/en
Further information on the position may be obtained from Dr. Alain
Ratnadass ([email protected] or +33 4 67 59 31 14)
Alain Ratnadass (PhD)
