Hola ECOLOG'ers, (apologies for cross-posting)
I'm running an exclosure experiment to look at the relative roles of birds and bats in limiting arthropods, and in turn herbivory, in the forest understory at La Selva Biological Station in northeastern Costa Rica. The reasoning behind this is that understory insectivorous birds have declined greatly at La Selva over the last 30-40 years, so I'm testing to see what consequences the loss of this guild may have for the forest understory community, and at the same time whether insectivorous bats can compensate. I have already run these exclosures once at La Selva and once at a site in Nicaragua (Refugio Bartola) where similar avian declines have not coccurred. The work itself will involve going out at dawn and dusk daily, transferring netting between exclosures, some daytime and nighttime arthropod surveys, and possibly some bat netting. There's little to no bird work involved so birding skill is not a prerequisite. Insect ID skill (to order/family) would be great, but not necessary. Instead, the most important characteristics I'm looking relate to typical field skills: reliability, independence, ability and comfort to work in the rainforest (with inclement weather, biting insects, occasional venomous snakes) at dawn and dusk. I will cover housing and food (in an off-station house), station fees, local transport, and could cover at least half of the airline ticket, possibly more depending on funding. The position would start ASAP and last until early May. Please contact me at nmic...@tulane.edu for further information. Cheers, Nicole Michel ********************************************************* Nicole Michel Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 400 Boggs Tulane University New Orleans, LA 70118 US Fax: 504-862-8706 US Cell: 360-606-5631 La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica, January - August Costa Rica Fax: 506-2766-6535 Costa Rica Phone: 506-2766-6565 x178 http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~nmichel *********************************************************
