Post-Doctoral Position in Forest Ecology

Post-doctoral position in Forest Ecology

Landcare Research is New Zealand's leading terrestrial environmental research institute and has over 400 staff throughout New Zealand (http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz). We have funding available for a 3-year post-doctoral position in forest ecology. The funding is through a Cross Departmental Research Project to develop forest ecosystem assessment indicators for New Zealand's indigenous forests. In part, this project will examine processes controlling the size structure of tree populations in forests along environmental gradients, including understanding the roles of disturbance and pest mammals on recruitment, growth and mortality in forests.

This position will involve working alongside scientific staff in our Ecosystem Process research team on topics such as: determining how demographic processes control tree size distributions; matching demographic processes to disturbance histories, environment and management histories; designing monitoring systems for tree populations at various scales. Large amounts of forest data already exist for this project (e.g., http://nvs.landcareresearch.co.nz/), and we expect rapid progress will be made towards achieving the research goals and producing high quality publications.

The position will be based with our Ecosystem Process research team based in Lincoln. This team includes 30 staff working on the ecology of terrestrial ecosystems. Lincoln township is located in Canterbury approximately 20 km from Christchurch (population 320,000: http://www.ccc.govt.nz/christchurch/). There are two universities nearby and an international airport in Christchurch. We seek applications from PhD graduates who have a background in ecology, forestry or related areas. The ideal candidate will have strong skills in data analyses and statistics, forest dynamics, and have an established publication record. Competencies include an ability to operate as part of a research team. To apply for this position please submit a cover letter, CV and up to 3 representative publications through our web site (http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz; follow the jobs link). We will review applications for this position by October 15, 2006. For further information on this position contact Duane Peltzer ([email protected]).

-- Duane A. Peltzer Landcare Research P.O. Box 40 Lincoln 7640 NEW ZEALAND

Phone: +64 3 321 9773 Fax: +64 3 321 9998 e-mail: [email protected] www.landcareresearch.co.nz