Job Description

Academic

Job Category Faculty Non Bargaining

Job Title Postdoc position: Tundra vegetation change and implications for wildlife habitats

Department Research | Myers-Smith Lab | Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences | Faculty of Forestry (Isla Myers-Smith)

Posting End Date March 20, 2024

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the Posting End Date above.

Job End Date Mar 31, 2026

The expected pay for this position is $5,000.00/month.

Postdoc position: Tundra vegetation change and implications for wildlife habitats

Job description

There is an urgent need to understand the effects of climate change on tundra ecosystems including vegetation change such as shrubification. Increasing shrub cover is modifying the habitats of key wildlife species including caribou, muskox (Ovibos moschatus), moose (Alces alces) and Dall sheep (Ovis dalli dalli), facilitating increases in predator populations. Changes to plant habitat can have critical impacts on animal population dynamics and trophic interactions among plants, prey and predators. Thus, understanding vegetation change will be critical to understanding the fate of wildlife populations and shifts in Arctic food webs in a rapidly warming Arctic.

The Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) project in global change ecology of northern ecosystems will investigate how warming temperatures and shifting seasonality affect Arctic tundra, alpine and boreal forest ecosystems, including changes in plant growth, habitat composition, wildlife movement and species ranges. It will also examine the collective impact of these changes on the livelihoods of Indigenous communities in the Yukon Territory, Canada. As a part of this CERC project, we are offering a postdoctoral position in the Faculty of Forestry at University of British Columbia for a self-motivated candidate with a strong scientific background in the fields of ecology, remote sensing or a related field with excellent English language skills.

In this postdoc project, you will study vegetation change over time across spatial scales and will explore the implications for wildlife habitats. You will work with available ecological and remote sensing data to quantify changes in vegetation change across spatial and temporal scales and the implications for wildlife. Research questions will be co-developed with Indigenous communities in the Canadian North. This research will increase our understanding of tundra vegetation change and the implications for wildlife species. We collaborate with a team of early career researchers, Northern partners and international experts to conduct this research.

Minimum Qualifications

• A PhD degree in ecology, remote sensing, environmental sciences or a related field
• Strong quantitative skills including ecological data analysis, statistical analysis and data management
• Experience in R and/or Python programming
• An interest in interdisciplinary research spanning the fields of ecology, remote sensing, spatial analysis and mathematical ecology
• Experience in writing and publishing peer-reviewed articles
• Fluency in verbal and written English
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work independently and lead multi-author collaborative research projects
• Interest in working in an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment as a part of a diverse team
• Willingness to provide mentorship to early career researchers on the team

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience using version control software and conducting collaborative science
• Willingness to lead fieldwork in Arctic locations
• Knowledge of spatial analysis and Bayesian statistics
• Experience conducting fieldwork
• Experience conducting ecological data synthesis
• Experience in northern ecosystems
• Experience piloting drone and working with drone imagery

Offer

You will be offered a full-time two-year position with the potential to extend to a third year. The annual salary will be $60,000 CAD per year. UBC offers postdocs a wide-ranging benefits plan that includes extended health and dental coverage. Postdocs are encouraged to apply for external funding to support their independent research building on this position within the research group.

About the Organization

This position will be based at the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver campus, which is located on the territory of the Musqueam (x\xca\xb7m\xc9\x99\xce\xb8k\xca\xb7\xc9\x99y\xcc\x93\xc9\x99m) People.

The University of British Columbia is a global centre for teaching, learning and research, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world. The University of British Columbia\xe2\x80\x99s (UBC) Faculty of Forestry is recognized globally as one of the leading forestry faculties in the world. As the largest Faculty of Forestry in Canada, we welcome almost 1500 undergraduate and graduate students from over 40 countries every year to study forestry at UBC.

We strive to create a respectful, positive and safe working environment for people of all backgrounds. We believe that inclusiveness and diversity are essential to academic excellence. We encourage members of underrepresented groups to apply including First Nations, M\xc3\xa9tis and Inuit peoples, Indigenous peoples of North America, Black-identified persons, other racialized persons, persons with disabilities, and those who identify as women and/or 2SLGBTQ+.

Additional Information

For more information about this position, please contact Prof. Isla Myers-Smith (contact information at https://forestry.ubc.ca/faculty-profile/isla-myers-smith/).

Apply

The application deadline is 20th March 2024 or until the position is filled. For more information see:

University of British Columbia