The Ponisio Lab (www.ponisiolab.com) at the University of California Riverside is seeking PhD students interested in species interactions and community ecology.
The Ponisio Lab studies the mechanisms operating in complex systems, specifically ecological communities, that underlie diversity maintenance. The questions we are currently tackling are along these lines: 1) How do the characteristics of communities affect interaction patterns? 2) How do interaction patterns feedback to affect the characteristics of communities? 3) How can we design (restore) degraded communities to promote stability and evolutionary potential (applying all the principles learned from the above)? As a lab, we adhere to best practices in reproducible science, so applicants should have experience with/enthusiasm for learning about data science. We are beginning a new long-term experiment in the Madrean Sky Islands asking how the interaction patterns at the individual, species and network level effect ecosystem resilience and function, and how does the assembly history of a community influence those patterns ( http://www.ponisiolab.com/networks-along-gradients.html). This is a collaborative project with Shalene Jha at UT Austin and Terry Griswold at the USDA Logan Bee Lab. We are particularly interested in students who would like to be part of this work, however, research in the lab is diverse and students will be encouraged to develop and pursue independent research projects as part of their dissertation work. Interested applicants should email Lauren Ponisio ([email protected]) to discuss research opportunities and qualifications. Please include your CV and a brief description of your research interests, including how they align with the lab. We are also interested in students wishing to pursue a fellowship through UC Mexus (a fellowship for Mexican students wishing to pursue a graduate degree in the UC system). -- Kaysee Tom Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs MPA in Environmental Science and Policy, 2014 University of California, Berkeley BS in Environmental Science, 2013 (818) 645-9319 | [email protected]
