Postdoctoral Scholar Researching Fish Habitat Selection and Use

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Academic Level:
Postdoc & Early Career

Description:
The Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, working in conjunction with the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Southwest Fisheries Science Center, invites applications for the position of Postdoctoral Scholar, under the direction of Dr. Peter Dudley. The postdoctoral scholar will develop a model to simulate juvenile salmonid and sturgeon habitat selection and use and implement that model inside a larger modeling framework. The postdoctoral scholar will examine habitat selection and use in the context of such things as predation pressure, food availability, shade, depth, velocity, and temperature. The postdoctoral scholar will be encouraged to examine habitat selection and use in the context of other important factors not listed above and pursue novel modeling methods or refine established models as they see fit. This modeling effort will be part of a larger modeling toolkit to assess the effect of habitat alterations on anadromous fish on large rivers. Humans have and continue to alter many large rivers both for human and wildlife needs. Agencies need to assess how these human actions affect resident fish populations if managers are to mitigate the effects of human actions, recover populations of threatened fish species, and effectively manage resident fish populations. We are developing a mechanistic ecological modeling tool which will allow agencies to predict the effect of proposed habitat altering actions on native fish populations. This modeling tool will be spatially explicit and will use an individual based modeling framework. While designing and implementing the model, the postdoctoral scholar will investigate the biological mechanisms of how habitat alterations affect the fish, determine the best methods for modeling these mechanisms, aggregate and synthesize literature and data necessary for the chosen methods, and code and test the model and modeling framework.

This is an excellent opportunity to both conduct fundamental scientific research into the effects of habitat alteration of resident fish and help in developing a tool which government agencies will use to assess the effects of their actions on resident fish populations. While the model will be general enough to operate on many rivers the initial use will be on the Sacramento River, California. The position is currently funded for one year. Salary: $70,020 initial annual salary.

Applicants with expertise in any of the following areas are strongly encouraged to apply:

-Demonstrated knowledge of lotic fish ecology.

-Experience in mechanistic ecological models.

-Experience in individual based models and related programs and languages (e.g. NetLogo, R).

-Demonstrated record of scientific publishing and oral presentation.

-Experience in GIS.


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This program is funded by:
U.S. Dept. of Defense


Page last updated 3/24/2022
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