Doctoral Student Positions- Stream Ecology/ Ecological Modeling We seek 6 graduate students at the doctoral level to fill positions on a large cross-site project examining properties of scaling in stream ecology entitled, “Scale, Consumers and Lotic Ecosystem Rates (SCALER): Centimeters to Continents”. This is a outstanding opportunity to get involved with a network of top-level stream scientists.The students will be focused on field work at individual sites or modeling across sites although all students will be expected to be involved in cross-site synthesis.
The overarching question that SCALER will address is: How can small-scale ecological experiments be applied to understand the behavior of entire ecological systems? Specifically this proposal will ask: 1) How do the fundamental properties of stream ecosystems and the effects of animals on stream ecosystem properties scale across stream networks; and 2) How do patterns of scaling vary across the wide array of ecological systems (from tundra to tropical forest) that occurs across the North American continent? The SCALER experiments will be conducted in tropical forest, temperate deciduous forest, prairie, northern boreal forest, and tundra biomes. Streams in each of these five regions will be examined at scales of centimeters to 1000’s of meters in small, medium and large streams. Rates of stream metabolism (photosynthesis and respiration) and nutrient uptake will be measured, as well as the way these ecosystem processes respond to animal exclusions (used to mimic loss of animal diversity in streams) in small headwater to mid-order stream reaches. Reach scale studies will be linked to the scale of watersheds and regions by modeling and statistical scaling approaches, and verified by broader, but less intensive sampling. The knowledge that will be generated by this project is essential to quantify controls on stream ecosystem processes as well as to manage human impacts on entire watersheds. The experimental and modeling results will be relevant to general ecology because few e! xperiments have been undertaken in any environment that couple experimental and theoretical approaches at nested scales. Application deadlines are 1 Dec 2011, with 1 June 2012 start dates. Field Positions Contact: Walter Dodds/ Keith Gido [email protected]/[email protected] Kansas State Univ. Amy Rosemond/John Kominoski [email protected]/[email protected] Univ. Georgia Breck Bowden/ Michael Flinn [email protected]/[email protected] Univ. Vermont Jeremy Jones / Tamara Harms [email protected]/ [email protected] Univ. Alaska Fairbanks Bill McDowell [email protected] Univ. New Hampshire Modeling Position Contact: Ford Ballantyne [email protected] Univ. Kansas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Walter Dodds University Distinguished Professor in Biology Kansas State University 785 532 6998 http://www.k-state.edu/doddslab/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
