PhD Research Assistantships in Landscape Ecology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Geography & Earth Sciences
Two PhD research assistantships are available for highly motivated graduate students interested in landscape ecology and emerging infectious diseases. The assistantships are part of a new award from the National Science Foundation to study interacting disturbances between the emerging forest disease sudden oak death (SOD), wildfire, and drought. Over the past 10 years, our interdisciplinary group from UNC Charlotte, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley has pursued ecological and evolutionary research across multiple spatial scales on the generalist plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum (causal agent of SOD) in coastal forests of California. Two major ecological disturbances recently affected our study sites in the Big Sur region, which have created rare natural experiments to examine interacting disturbances in a disease system: i) during summer 2008 a large wildfire burned half of our long-term study sites and ii) extreme drought conditions variably affected the plant and pathogen communities during 2007-2009. We have collected spatially extensive data on host community structure and disease establishment prior to these disturbances and we have measured post-disturbance changes during and immediately following the major modifications to the biotic and abiotic environment. We are looking to recruit students who demonstrate interests and talents for modeling the spatial and temporal dynamics of ecological feedbacks between the pathogen, its host communities, and environmental heterogeneity in order to understand alternative trajectories of ecosystem function and structure in the context of a complex, interacting disturbance regime. Several possible research topics are available for study, such as: 1) modeling pathogen reservoirs that drive the re-colonization of disease following disturbance and 2) analyzing how the joint impacts of disease and wildfire alter ecological communities and in turn mediate host-pathogen-environment interactions across spatiotemporal scales. Assistantships will begin in fall 2012 in the PhD program in Geography. Working with Dr. Ross Meentemeyer students will join the research community and ongoing projects in the Center for Applied Geographic Information Science (www.gis.uncc.edu). Prior to submitting a formal application, candidates are encouraged to submit an email inquiry to Dr. Ross Meentemeyer including: cover letter summarizing background and research interests, resume, GRE scores, and contact information for three references (no letters needed at this time). Please include Ph.D. student application in the subject line of your email. Ph.D. assistantships are available for at least 3 years pending performance at an annual stipend of $18,000 with health insurance and tuition waiver. Applications will be reviewed upon receipt, but will continue until candidates are chosen. Applications received by January 15, 2012 will be guaranteed full consideration. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is an AA/EOE. -- Ross K. Meentemeyer | Professor and Executive Director UNC Charlotte | Center for Applied GIScience Department of Geography and Earth Sciences 9201 University City Blvd | Charlotte, NC 28223 Phone: 704-687-5944 | Fax: 704-687-5966 [email protected] | http://www.gis.uncc.edu
