Start and end dates: Approximately June 1 2016 to end of September 2016 Salary: Approximately $13-16/hour
Job description: Pollination provides key ecosystem services, both directly, via the fertilization of crops and other natural resources, and indirectly, by promoting plant communities that may assist with carbon sequestration, water filtration, and erosion control. In the Sierra Nevada, climate change can affect pollinators through changes in fire behavior and changes in blooming phenology, which can place pollinator species out-of-step with resources. A warmer and drier climate exacerbates changes caused by past forest management (fire suppression and homogenization), resulting in a longer fire season and larger and more severe wildfires than previously recorded. Our research will address key knowledge gaps on how climate-driven changes to blooming phenology and fire behavior impact pollinators and their habitat in the Sierra Nevada while providing managers with guidance on how to improve post-fire restoration to conserve ecosystem services. Duties: Duties will include hiking several miles a day over rough, uneven terrain in burned and unburned forest, surveying for hummingbirds, bumble bees, and butterflies, conducting botanical and phenological surveys, and collecting behavioral observations of pollinators. Invertebrate pollinators will be caught, identified to species and released so technicians must not be afraid of or allergic to bees or other insects. Requirements: Applicant should be patient and detail-oriented with strong observational skills and the ability to take careful notes in field. Applicant should be able to hike at high elevation over rugged terrain while carrying equipment. Applicant should be comfortable working independently and in teams, handling stinging and biting insects, hiking all day in extreme heat and in other challenging field conditions. Applicant should have basic competency using GPS/maps to locate field sites. This is a full-time (40 hours/week) position with camping required. Desired qualifications (not required): Experience identifying and/or sampling flowering plants, birds and/or insects, previous field experience & proven interest in ecology and wildlife biology. If you are interested (or have questions), please email Gina Tarbill at [email protected] for an outreach form. This is a pre-announcement for a USAjobs position. Thanks!
