Graduate Students, Postdocs, and Fellows
I am always looking for engaged and motivated students and researchers to collaborate with; please see the Prospective Students tab for more information.
NEW FIELD OPPORTUNITY: Field Assistant Wolf-Ungulate Predator-Prey Game
We are looking for field assistants to help with data collection for the wolf-ungulate predator-prey dynamics project in Riding Mountain National in southwestern Manitoba. The current project continues research on the mammalian system that has occurred for the last 80 years and will test hypotheses related to the socioecology and behaviour of wolves and elk.
Field assistants will participate in wolf site investigations, telemetry flights, working with trail cameras, and sample processing. The support exists for successful applicants to complete a research project using the data from this system to explore their own questions. Field work occurs year-round but there is an increased demand for assistants during the spring and summer seasons from April to August. Applicants should have a passion for wildlife ecology research and a commitment to completing challenging fieldwork (physical exertion, hiking through thick vegetation and water, exposure to weather, mosquitos, ticks)
Undergraduate students can receive funding through successful application to the NSERC USRA program, successful applicants are encouraged to commit to at least 3 months of field work in the summer. There exists the opportunity to volunteer, where solely board will be provided, funds do not exist to cover food and travel. Shared living accommodations will be provided to all field assistants.
The deadline to submit NSERC USRA applications to Memorial University of Newfoundland is January 26, 2017. Undergraduate students currently enrolled at their home institution are eligible to apply for a NSERC USRA at MUN and NSERC will provide funds for them to travel from their institution to MUN.
Volunteer inquiries will always be accepted.
If interested, please email cmprokopenko@mun.ca
Christina Prokopenko, PhD Student
Wildlife Evolutionary Ecology Lab
Department of Biology
Memorial University of Newfoundland
NEW GRADUATE POSITION:
Linking Spatial Stoichiometry and Resource Selection to Population Ecology
Start date May of September 2017
We are recruiting an exceptional graduate student onto a collaborative research program: Effects of Forest Harvest on Population Dynamics, Distribution, and Stoichiometry in Lynx-Hare-Plant Food Webs in Newfoundland. Our preference is for a committed, thoughtful, and independent MSc student; however, outstanding PhD applicants with a track-record of submitted or published relevant research will be considered. The project and position are fully funded. Nevertheless, students will be encouraged to compete for internal and external funding; higher GPAs and a history of publications improves competitiveness. The competition will remain open until the position is filled.
Project: Populations consist of individuals that typically exhibit variation in their response to environmental change. The goal of this research project is to better understand how environmental changes due to forest harvest practices affect individual-based traits that could influence measures of fitness (growth, reproduction, survival). The project will focus on two families of traits: individual-based measures of resource or habitat selection, and variation in stoichiometry (i.e., Carbon:Nitrogen ratio and quantity). This project tests the effects of forest harvest practices on these traits in a trophic hierarchy consisting of herbivores (snowshoe hare) and predators (Canada lynx).
Team: This project is part of a larger research program at MUN that includes food-web ecology and ecological stoichiometry (Leroux Lab) and landscape ecology (Wiersma Lab). The successful applicant will have the opportunity to work closely with all three labs, including collaborating with two other exceptional graduate students on this research program (a PhD student with Leroux and a MSc student with Wiersma).
Training Opportunity: This project will provide excellent opportunities for training and developing marketable skills for employment or further graduate studies. For example, (1) Fundamentals: critical thinking, experimental design, practicing and communicating science; (2) Field skills: trapping and handling hare and lynx; biotelemetry; and snow tracking; (3) Analytical: advanced GIS, capture-mark-recapture population estimates, and programing statistical, spatial, and population models.
Qualifications: Applicants should have four main qualities: (1) a passion for ecological and evolutionary theory; (2) an aptitude for and commitment to research in the field – in all seasons; (3) quantitative skills in GIS, statistical programing in R, and experience or an interest in modeling; (4) and foremost, evidence of collegiality.
Wildlife Evolutionary Ecology Lab (http://ericvanderwal.weebly.com/): We are a question-driven research group; one of a number of productive and dynamic research groups in ecology, evolution, and animal behavior at MUN.
We bridge fundamental and applied questions in evolutionary, behavioral, population, and wildlife ecology.
To apply please send a letter of interest, CV, and transcripts (unofficial) to eric.vanderwal@mun.ca.
~Eric
--
Eric Vander Wal | Assistant Professor
Department of Biology,
Memorial University of Newfoundland
I am always looking for engaged and motivated students and researchers to collaborate with; please see the Prospective Students tab for more information.
NEW FIELD OPPORTUNITY: Field Assistant Wolf-Ungulate Predator-Prey Game
We are looking for field assistants to help with data collection for the wolf-ungulate predator-prey dynamics project in Riding Mountain National in southwestern Manitoba. The current project continues research on the mammalian system that has occurred for the last 80 years and will test hypotheses related to the socioecology and behaviour of wolves and elk.
Field assistants will participate in wolf site investigations, telemetry flights, working with trail cameras, and sample processing. The support exists for successful applicants to complete a research project using the data from this system to explore their own questions. Field work occurs year-round but there is an increased demand for assistants during the spring and summer seasons from April to August. Applicants should have a passion for wildlife ecology research and a commitment to completing challenging fieldwork (physical exertion, hiking through thick vegetation and water, exposure to weather, mosquitos, ticks)
Undergraduate students can receive funding through successful application to the NSERC USRA program, successful applicants are encouraged to commit to at least 3 months of field work in the summer. There exists the opportunity to volunteer, where solely board will be provided, funds do not exist to cover food and travel. Shared living accommodations will be provided to all field assistants.
The deadline to submit NSERC USRA applications to Memorial University of Newfoundland is January 26, 2017. Undergraduate students currently enrolled at their home institution are eligible to apply for a NSERC USRA at MUN and NSERC will provide funds for them to travel from their institution to MUN.
Volunteer inquiries will always be accepted.
If interested, please email cmprokopenko@mun.ca
Christina Prokopenko, PhD Student
Wildlife Evolutionary Ecology Lab
Department of Biology
Memorial University of Newfoundland
NEW GRADUATE POSITION:
Linking Spatial Stoichiometry and Resource Selection to Population Ecology
Start date May of September 2017
We are recruiting an exceptional graduate student onto a collaborative research program: Effects of Forest Harvest on Population Dynamics, Distribution, and Stoichiometry in Lynx-Hare-Plant Food Webs in Newfoundland. Our preference is for a committed, thoughtful, and independent MSc student; however, outstanding PhD applicants with a track-record of submitted or published relevant research will be considered. The project and position are fully funded. Nevertheless, students will be encouraged to compete for internal and external funding; higher GPAs and a history of publications improves competitiveness. The competition will remain open until the position is filled.
Project: Populations consist of individuals that typically exhibit variation in their response to environmental change. The goal of this research project is to better understand how environmental changes due to forest harvest practices affect individual-based traits that could influence measures of fitness (growth, reproduction, survival). The project will focus on two families of traits: individual-based measures of resource or habitat selection, and variation in stoichiometry (i.e., Carbon:Nitrogen ratio and quantity). This project tests the effects of forest harvest practices on these traits in a trophic hierarchy consisting of herbivores (snowshoe hare) and predators (Canada lynx).
Team: This project is part of a larger research program at MUN that includes food-web ecology and ecological stoichiometry (Leroux Lab) and landscape ecology (Wiersma Lab). The successful applicant will have the opportunity to work closely with all three labs, including collaborating with two other exceptional graduate students on this research program (a PhD student with Leroux and a MSc student with Wiersma).
Training Opportunity: This project will provide excellent opportunities for training and developing marketable skills for employment or further graduate studies. For example, (1) Fundamentals: critical thinking, experimental design, practicing and communicating science; (2) Field skills: trapping and handling hare and lynx; biotelemetry; and snow tracking; (3) Analytical: advanced GIS, capture-mark-recapture population estimates, and programing statistical, spatial, and population models.
Qualifications: Applicants should have four main qualities: (1) a passion for ecological and evolutionary theory; (2) an aptitude for and commitment to research in the field – in all seasons; (3) quantitative skills in GIS, statistical programing in R, and experience or an interest in modeling; (4) and foremost, evidence of collegiality.
Wildlife Evolutionary Ecology Lab (http://ericvanderwal.weebly.com/): We are a question-driven research group; one of a number of productive and dynamic research groups in ecology, evolution, and animal behavior at MUN.
We bridge fundamental and applied questions in evolutionary, behavioral, population, and wildlife ecology.
To apply please send a letter of interest, CV, and transcripts (unofficial) to eric.vanderwal@mun.ca.
~Eric
--
Eric Vander Wal | Assistant Professor
Department of Biology,
Memorial University of Newfoundland
