One Year Post-Doctoral Research Associate—Livestock Tracking and Behavior Organization Overview and Location:
Archbold Biological Station (ABS; www.archbold-station.org ), through its Division, the MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center (MAERC; www.maerc.org), in collaboration with the University of Florida - Range Cattle Research and Education Center (http://rcrec-ona.ifas.ufl.edu ) is seeking a motivated and creative post-doctoral research associate to join a large collaborative project that is examining how fire and grazing interact to affect greenhouse gas flux, productivity, soil nutrients, and plant community diversity and composition. The post-doc will join an extremely active research team, and their focus and responsibility will be the development and application of appropriate temporal spatial tools to estimate grazing behavior from cattle GPS movement data, and how behavior is impacted by fire and in turn affects associated ecosystem services. The Archbold – University of Florida collaborative is part of USDA’s Long- term Agro-ecosystem Research Network (LTAR; www.ars.usda.gov/ltar). The post-doc will interact on a national scale with the LTAR network, engaging with the expertise of the Livestock Tracking Group to collate date management and analyses tools that will be available for use network wide. The position will be located at the UF - Range Cattle Research and Education Center, and travel will often occur between MAERC and UF, about 1.5hrs. Housing is not included with this position. This is a full-time one-year position with the opportunity for extension depending on satisfactory progress and availability of funding. Job Summary: The post-doctoral research associate will be co-supervised by Dr. Raoul Boughton at UF and Dr. Elizabeth Boughton at MAERC, as well as interact with other collaborators working at the Archbold-UF LTAR site, and the LTAR livestock tracking group. The post-doc will be required to coordinate data management with onsite data managers for ongoing collection of movement data and analyze existing one-year dataset of cattle movements from GPS collars in the local LTAR fire and grazing common experiment. This experiment investigates the effect of patch burn grazing compared to full burn management on cattle movements. Analyses should include a test of whether cattle spend more time in burned sectors vs unburned sectors within patch burn grazing treatments and how this relationship changes as time since fire increases. Additionally, spatial analyses will be conducted on cattle use of patch burn pastures vs. pastures that were fully burned. Produce 1-2 peer reviewed publications on the above dataset. In addition to peer reviewed publications the post-doc will also write 1-2 publications designed to communicate results and management to stakeholders. The post doc will participate in the network wide LTAR Livestock Tracking Group initiative, and will help develop metadata standards, QAQC, database structure, aggregation data tools, r script libraries and analytical approaches that everyone in LTAR could use or modify. For example, Movement Parameters could include, Daily travel distance (km), Daily extent (ha), Daily far-point distance (km), Daily time mobile (hr), Path lengths (m), Path tortuosity (deg/m), Path steepness (m/m), Path recursiveness. Livestock Behavior Parameters: Daily activity bout count, Daily bout durations, Daily activity budgets (proportion of day spent on particular activities) and Landscape Use Parameters: resource selectivity, Patch transit time (s), Patch return time and visitation rate per trial Dispersion (m), riparian/wetland occupancy (hr). Engage with local LTAR leads to expand study to assess cattle use and spatial ecology in both rangelands and pastures, and to include other technology to assess cattle activity and behavior, accelerometers, bite activity, and diet selectivity. Duties and Responsibilities: Data Management • Develop and maintain organized records of all data collected, and in collaboration with MAERC-UF data manager upload data into databases. • Develop tools to summarize data for downloads for various analyses Analysis • Analyze data for fire and grazing common experiment • Develop analysis tools in R and graphical representation or output for group use Reporting • Compile results from analyses in written reports, including graphs and/or tables • Compile written methods of analytical approaches and tools used to create results • Within 4 months of contract start have database and data management set-up and functional • Within 8 months of contract start complete draft of scientific peer-reviewed publication for submission, and non-scientific result format for stakeholders • Within 11 months of contract start complete second scientific peer- reviewed publication for submission • Within 12 month have analysis tools and libraries compiled and edited for use by broader team. Required Education, Experience, and Skills: • PhD in animal movement, behavior analyses using remote data, or equivalent, required. • Experience with database management and working with large relational datasets. Archbold-UF LTAR uses MS Access, MS SQL • Strong analytical skills. Advanced knowledge of program R, Arc INFO, or other similar platforms • High level of attention to detail and accuracy. • Ability to be task oriented and complete tasks on a schedule. • Ability to work independently and as part of a team. • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills for working with diverse stakeholders (governmental personnel, scientists, ranchers, etc.) Working Conditions: The position is data and analytical heavy and will mostly comprise of office work. During deployment of equipment Post-Doc will be around livestock and have the opportunity to engage in field work and develop research questions of their own. Application Details: Competitive salary ($48,000-$55,000 depending on experience) with full benefits. Applicants should send 1) a letter of application addressing required skills, 2) a resume or CV with relevant coursework and experience, and 3) names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for three references to Dr. Raoul Boughton at rbough...@ufl.edu. Applications are due the 14th September, interviews will be held late September, with an expected start date in October. Contact Dr. Boughton via e-mail or at (863) 735 1314 for more information. Must possess a valid US driver’s license. Must have authorization for US employment. Equal Opportunity Employer. Women, Minorities, Veterans and Disabled Persons are encouraged to apply.
