CT5 Conservation Biogeography Short Lecture Series

Werner Ulrich (CT5.2) has developed a new method of estimating abundance of species in a community by assessing the factor of competition between individual species.

Laura Kehoe (CT5.3) discussed Land Use Intensity as compared with biodiversity in a very interesting talk, which showed globally, the areas which specifically compare land with high anthropogenic use that is adjacent to natural areas of high biodiversity. These high biodiversity to land use regions were found to be dominantly in the tropics: Central America, SE Asia and parts of Central Africa; regions with currently high levels of deforestation. But also found within Southern America, Sth Africa and parts of Australia. Significant areas with this high level of land clash lie outside Conservation Internation Biodiversity Hotspots.

Jenny McGuire (CT5.4) modelled the potential movement of animals over negative temperature gradients (due to climate change) finding worryingly that only 22% of landscape patches within her USA model had enough interconnectivity for successful movement. This is due to anthropogenic land use changes, fragmenting the landscape, very high in the agriculturally-rich eastern USA. Including climate corridors in the models connected and improved this potential movement between landscape patches greatly. How well will seemingly narrow vegetation corridors work in reality?

Carston (CT5.5) gave a thorough account of gaps within current global animal research data, including methods and abilities to track and calculate ranges of mammals. He showed that prioritization of data mobilisation is necessary because data is heavily biased to Western research organisations and completeness in overall data gaps would be significantly improved by finding local data sources.

Ricardo Dobrovolski (CT5.6) showed us that habitat amount determines the extinction risk threshold on a macro-logical scale, for the individual and community level . These risk factors should be compiled and expanded upon in the future to b used in conjunction with global climate change models.

2 POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER POSITIONS in GLOBAL CHANGE and CONSERVATION

Two positions available at the Global Change and Conservation group, part of the Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Research, at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The appointments will be for a fixed term for two years and there will be a trial period of four months in the beginning. Starting independent university researchers can be considered in special cases.

We are looking for ambitious advanced postdocs willing to join a stimulating environment and collaborate with an active team. We would especially welcome candidates with background and expertise that could complement the team most. We work with a broad range of topics related to conservation effectiveness and conservation planning. Climate change research has a strong focus, but we also deal with other important aspects of conservation: conserving evolutionary history; ecosystem functioning and conservation planning; deforestation, causes and consequences; governance and other sociopolitical constraints to conservation (read more about us at http://gcc.it.helsinki.fi). The team hosts a broad range of research activities from methodological and theoretical research to teaching a very applied field course in the tropics. A qualified candidate will have interests in developing conservation theory, developing measures of effectiveness of conservation actions, and/or developing quantitative and spatial conservation planning approaches.

We would welcome candidates with very different profiles, from social scientists to spatial ecologists or biostatisticians. We especially welcome applications from candidates specialized in community ecology (in particular, modelers of metacommunities in space), macroecology, paleontology, and physiology. For one of the posts, we would favor a candidate with a strong spatial statistics background and extensive GIS skills.

For the second post we would have preference for a candidate with a social science

background and with expertise in studying the social aspects of conservation science.

The topic for the research project is open for specification depending on the expertise and interest of the candidate. Nonetheless, the successful candidate will be expected to conduct original research on core problems in biodiversity conservation. The candidate should be willing to integrate his/her own research project to those of the team, and be able to propose and foster common lines of research.

Qualified applicants should possess a minimum of a doctoral degree (Ph.D) and have the background and ability to address or discuss a wide range of disciplines and issues

related to conservation. Selected candidates will not have the obligation, but will have the opportunity to participate in PhD student supervision.

The salary will be based on level 5–6 (3 105–4 221 €/month, Postdoctoral Researcher /

University Researcher) of the demands level chart for teaching and research personnel in the salary system of Finnish universities. In addition, the appointee will be paid a salary component based on personal performance. All standard pension benefits and

occupational health care are provided for university employees.

Applications

Candidates should submit by email (biotiede-mrg@helsinki.fi) the following documentation by December 30th:

- Curriculum vitae

- Brief description of previous work, with 3 selected publications

- Letter of interest, expressing how the candidate thinks his/her background would

fit the team’s research interests

- Names and email addresses of up to three referees

Position Extent: 2 years

Starting date: preferably 1.2.2013

Contact person: Mar Cabeza (cabeza@cc.helsinki.fi)

Information about us:

The team: http://gcc.it.helsinki.fi

The larger research group: www.helsinki.fi/science/metapop

The department: http://www.helsinki.fi/biosciences/

Helsinki, 12th December 2012

University of Helsinki Central Administration

www.helsinki.fi/university

Postdoctoral researcher in “Macroecology” - BIK - F Germany

The Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F; Macroecology Group) is a new interdisciplinary institute with the mission to carry out internationally outstanding research on the interactions of biodiversity and climate change on the organism level. It has been founded by the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, and other partners. The Centre is funded by the Federal State of Hesse through its Initiative for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence (LOEWE). It provides a new, dynamic research environment that integrates a variety of disciplines from both natural and social sciences. The Project Area B “Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate” invites applications for the position of a

Postdoctoral researcher in “Macroecology”
Project B2.1 [Ref. #B48a]

The successful applicant will investigate the impact of climatic factors and other drivers of global change on population dynamics of organisms. We aim at trait-based, comparative analyses of long-term data sets across multiple taxa (e.g. epizoobenthos, fish, birds, butterflies, plants) from the terrestrial, limnic and marine realm. The applicant will take responsibility in study design, statistical analyses and publication of the results in close collaboration with data owners.

The applicant should hold a Ph.D. in ecology or a related field, and have a solid background in comparative, macroecological analyses and in advanced statistical methods. Experience in analyses of species’ traits and in population dynamics of organisms will be of advantage. The applicant is expected to work independently, to have an interest in a wide range of taxonomic groups, to have very strong oral and written communication skills and the willingness to develop a joint project with multiple collaboration partners. Salary and benefits are according to a public service position in Germany (TV-H E13). The Research Centre BiK-F advocates gender equality. Women are therefore strongly encouraged to apply. Equally qualified severely handicapped applicants will be given preference.

The contract shall start as soon as possible and will run for 24 months. The duty station will be Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The employer is the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung.

Please send your application by e-mail attachment, mentioning the reference of this position (#B48a) and including a letter outlining your suitability for the post, a detailed CV, contact details of 2 referees and a selection of your most important publications before September 28th, 2011 to: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. V. Mosbrugger, Scientific Coordinator Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. E-mail to Service and Administration: recruiting@senckenberg.de. For scientific enquiries please write to PD Dr. Ingrid Kröncke (email: Ingrid.Kroencke@senckenberg.de).
See also job announcement here.