Postdoctoral Position in Conservation/Restoration Ecology at Duke University
Dr. William Morris seeks to hire a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University to collaborate in a multi-investigator study of source-sink dynamics of endangered butterflies in the context of ecological restoration. This study involves researchers from Duke (Morris), Tufts University (E. Crone), University of Washington Vancouver (C. Shultz), North Carolina State University (N. Haddad), and the Institute for Wildlife Studies (B. Hudgens and C. Damiani). We are focusing on the question of whether ecological restoration has the potential to create (at least temporarily) sink habitats or ecological traps that may complicate attempts to manage rare butterflies on military lands, with funding from the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) of the Department of Defense. We are seeking a population ecologist to develop landscape models of source-sink dynamics tied to empirical data on movement and demography of butterflies in multiple habitat types on real landscapes, and to use the models to compare simpler and more complex metrics of source vs. sink status. The successful candidate must have at least basic programing skills (in R and/or MATLAB), and be interested in learning how to tie movement models to GIS databases of landscape characteristics. While knowledge of demographic methods/models and familiarity with different types of movement models (simulations, diffusion models, and integro-difference or integro-differential equation models) are positive qualifications, far more important is experience with collecting demographic data (of any organisms, including plants) or quantifying animal movement in the field, and general knowledge of population ecology, coupled with an interest in learning quantitative methods. In addition, we are open to side projects initiated by the postdoctoral fellow that fit the general aims of the project. Interested candidates should send a current CV, a brief (~2 pages) statement of past research accomplishments as well as a statement of how those experiences quality the candidate for this position, and the names and addresses (including email) of three references to W. Morris via email ([email protected]) by Oct. 15, 2013. The funded proposal for the project is available from W. Morris upon request. The position begins Jan. 1, 2014, or as soon thereafter as a suitable candidate is identified.
