Post-doctoral Researcher in Computational Landscape Ecology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Geography & Earth Sciences
We are recruiting a post-doctoral research associate to study the large-scale impacts of an invasive tree disease on forest structure and carbon dynamics. This position is part of a new five-year 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 decade, our interdisciplinary group from UNC Charlotte, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley has pursued ecological and evolutionary research across multiple spatial scales on the spread and persistence of the generalist plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum (causal agent of SOD) in coastal forests in California. Two major ecological disturbances recently affected our long-term study sites in the Big Sur region, which 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. The post-doctoral associate will play an integral role in developing landscape approaches to modeling ecological feedbacks among the pathogen, its host communities, and environmental heterogeneity in the context of a complex, interacting disturbance regime. We are also enthusiastic about opportunities to model disease-carbon interactions across broader spatial extents, including the entire geographic range of SOD host species in the western US. Highly qualified candidates will possess a strong quantitative background in spatial analysis and computational modeling of ecological processes in heterogeneous landscapes. Evidence of a strong scholarly publication track record and trajectory is essential. Advanced programming skills are a plus. Working with Ross Meentemeyer the new post doctoral associate will join the research community and ongoing projects in the Center for Applied Geographic Information Science (www.gis.uncc.edu). Resources will be available for travel to conferences, our colleagues labs, and fieldwork in coastal California. To apply, please email Ross a single PDF file including your curriculum vitae, a statement of research interests with a description of your quantitative talents, and the contact information of three references. Include Sudden Oak Death Post-Doc Search in the subject line. For more information, please contact Ross through e-mail. Review of applications will formally begin January 3, 2012 and will remain open until a suitable candidate is identified. Start date is negotiable but available immediately. 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 rkmee...@uncc.edu | http://www.gis.uncc.edu
