[Est-grad-rrp] Oportunidad Asistente Investigación

[Josefa Font]

Josefa Font Rivera, M.Ed

Coordinadora Iniciativas Desarrollo Estudiantil

Decanato de Estudios Graduados e Investigación

UPR-Río Piedras

PO Box 21790

San Juan, PR 00931-1790

Tel. 787-764-0000, x 7891, 2515

j_font at degi.uprrp.edu

http://graduados.uprrp.edu

 

Graduate Research Assistantship

                      Ecosystem change in the Arctic.

  USDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF)

   and the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras Department of Biology

 

Closing date: Open until filled.

 

Position available: For a MS graduate student.  The successful applicant will have a strong interest in field ecology, vegetation - including bryophytes and lichens, statistical analyses and modeling, GIS analyses, and ecosystem change studies.

 

Background:  This research is part of an integrated large scale experimental study, the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) ( http://www.geog.ubc.ca/itex/), to look at the response of Arctic vegetation to changes in climate.  It is also part of the International Polar Year (IPY - http://www.ipy.org/), a large scientific program focusing research on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009.  ITEX has been measuring experimentally controlled changes in productivity, phenology, vegetation composition, and nutrient fluxes within small scale vegetation plots replicated at many sites across the Arctic.

 

The student will continue with these long term measurements by sampling vegetation composition in natural and experimentally modified (by warming and altering snow depth) plots at the Toolik Lake Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Northern Alaska and analyze vegetation change over the last two decades using data from long term monitoring.

 

The goal of these analyses are to determine real and potential responses of arctic tundra to climate in order to further our understanding of ecosystem response to climatic change and to better our response to these changes in terms of land management.

 

The student will work under Dr. William Gould (US Forest Service), in collaboration with Dr. Jess Zimmerman (UPR professor), and in cooperation with several collaborators in the NSF -funded project.  The student will join the research team in the IITF GIS and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico.

 

Candidates should have the following skills:

-     Educational background in ecology, botany, environmental studies, or

a related disciplinary areas;

-     Proficiency and experience in identifying and keying plant species;

-     Motivation to work independently;

-     Excellent computing and writing skills, motivation  to publish in

peer-reviewed journals;

 

   Applicants should submit the following to William Gould at

   wgould at fs.fed.us:

-     Cover letter summarizing research interests and academic and

professional background

-     Resume/ CV

-     Copies of transcripts (unofficial transcripts acceptable at this

point)

-     GRE scores, if available

-     Names and contact information for three references (no letters needed

at this time)

 

This position is available beginning May 2007 with understanding to start coursework in Fall 200.  Field work in Alaska will be from mid July to the end of August in 2007 and 2008.

 

 

 

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