PhD Assistantship in Functional Landscape Ecology A graduate research assistantship (Ph. D. level) for students with interests in functional landscape ecology will be available starting in January 2007.
The successful applicant will have interests in landscape ecology, desert ecology, desert geomorphology, and remote sensing. The student will work with researchers at the Jornada Basin LTER of southern New Mexico (http://www.lternet.edu/sites/jrn/) to explain the rates, patterns and causes of regime shifts in grassland-shrubland ecosystems. Key questions include: why have grasslands been preserved in some areas and not in others, why do grasses and shrubs coexist in some situations but not in others, and how do ecosystem processes interact across scales to produce these variations? The student will work with an interdisciplinary team to develop landscape- level hypotheses pertaining to pattern and process. Hypothesis testing will involve remote sensing of vegetation patterns and linkage of patterns to ground-based measurements and process experiments. The student will work with a team including Drs. Brandon Bestelmeyer, Al Rango, Curtis Monger, and Deb Peters (New Mexico State University), Steve Archer (University of Arizona), and Greg Okin (University of California, Los Angeles). The student can be based at any of these universities and will be co-advised by two team members. Preference will be given to students willing to base at New Mexico State. Applications will be accepted until 31 October 2006. Applicants should include 1) a statement of interests and goals, 2) a CV with copies of transcripts and GRE scores, and 3) names and contact information for 3-5 references. Applications and information requests should be directed (preferably via email) to Brandon Bestelmeyer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Jornada Basin LTER, MSC 3JER, Box 30003, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003 or Steve Archer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), 325 Bio Sciences East, School of Natural Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0043; 520 626-8791).
