EBD) September 2016 Position
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Job Description for Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD) September 2016 Position Company Details: Estación Biológica de Doñana CSIC c/ Americo Vespucio, s/n, 41092, Isla de la Cartuja, Sevilla Company Description: Doñana Biological Station is a public research institute belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC, within the area of Natural Resources. Our primary mission is to carry out multidisciplinary research at the highest level, directed at understanding, from an evolutionary point of view, how biodiversity is generated, how it is maintained and damaged, in addition to the consequences of its loss and the chances of their preservation and restoration. Furthermore, it also promotes the transfer of knowledge to society. The Institute consists of a main building in Seville and two field stations, the ICTS Doñana Biological Reserve, (Doñana Natural Area, Almonte, Huelva) and Roblehondo Field Station (Parque Natural de las Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas). Spanish Required: None Positions: EBD are seeking graduates in areas such as animal behaviour, zoology, plant biology, biology, ecology or related fields to carry out a 3 month internship at their office in Seville. The projects they require interns for are listed below: 1) THE EFFECTS OF FIRE ON ANTS AND OTHER ARTHROPODS: A STUDY ON DIFFERENT DEPTHS Project description: This project will involve assisting in the investigations to support a Doctoral thesis on “The effects of fire on ants and other arthropods: A study on different depths” at the Department of Ethology and Biodiversity Conservation of the EBD-CSIC. The project will involve analysing the consequences of fire on four groups of epigeal and aerial arthropods (ants, beetles, spiders and bees) often used as bioindicators for ecosystem recovery. The aim of the thesis is to understand how species, communities, and ecosystems respond to environmental changes caused by fire. This will be done by studying the its effects on: 1) Patterns of abundance, richness and biodiversity of ants, beetles, spiders and bees, 2) functional diversity of ants, beetles, spiders and bees, 3) populations genetics in the communities of ants, 4) the dominant relationships in the communities of ants, 5) the use of trophic resources by ants and 6) the temperature resistance in ants. Tasks to be carried out by the intern: - Literature review - Research features of the history of life in the literature - Computerize data - Separation and classification of the extracted material in the field - Determination of ants, beetles , spiders and bees * basic knowledge in entomology are needed. Contact and supervision: José Manuel Vidal Cordero Thesis website: https://jmanuelvidalcordero.wordpress.com/ 2) EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL CONFLICT Project description: The trainee will participate in a project that centres on a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the evolution of sexual conflict traits in a beetle model system. Sexual selection and sexual conflict (when the evolutionary interests of males and females differ) are potent evolutionary forces that underlie the expression of numerous traits in males and females and that fuel complex coevolutionary interactions between the sexes. The project rests on a large experimental evolution approach consisting of several lines of beetles that have been maintained for over 30 generations under different selection treatments (presence/absence of sexual selection and presence/absence of population subdivision). The project brings together several areas in the study of evolutionary ecology and utilizes powerful methods to address questions at the cutting edge of sexual selection theory. The trainee will assist members of the research group in a series of experiments and assays on the individuals from the selection lines. These experiments will address several topical questions in relation to the dynamics of sexual conflict in response to the experimental manipulation of selective forces (in particular mating system selection history, population spatial structure selection history, and their interaction). Tasks to be carried out by the intern: Specifically, the trainee will carry out (or assist in carrying out) some of the following tasks: - Setting out mating assays among the individuals from the selection lines. - Helping out with running of assays to examine variation in traits responding to the different treatments of selection. - Helping out with the collection of the material and samples for assaying the reproductive success of individuals. - Preparation of samples for the measurement of male and female behavioural and reproductive traits that play a role in (or are the consequence of) sexual conflict. - Measurement of productivity rates in the different selection lines. Contact and supervision: Paco Garcia-Gonzalez 3) ECOTYPIC DIVERGENCE IN LONG-LIVED TREES ORIGINATING FROM MEDITERRANEAN AND TROPICAL AREAS Project description: Species distributed across a wide range of environmental conditions are subjected to differential selective pressures. Long-term selection can lead to the development of morphological and physiological adaptations to the local environment, generating ecotypic differentiation in important functional traits. In this project, we aim to study the role of natural selection on ecotypic divergence in two widely distributed oak tree species: Quercus faginea (Western Mediterranean) and Quercus oleoides (Neotropics) plus a narrowly distributed tree: Prunus lusitanica. We are particularly interested in testing how adaptation to different soils and climatic regimes has driven intraspecific genetic differentiation in ecologically-important traits of these species. Tasks to be carried out by the intern: - To analyse leaf morphological traits in herbarium specimens collected in natural conditions as well as seedlings growing in common garden experiments. - To investigate leaf (e.g. stomatal traits) and stem anatomy (e.g. xylem traits) using microscope images. - To participate in the development of a new experiment that will be established under controlled conditions. The student will be encouraged to contribute in the experimental design, formulation of hypotheses and implementation of the study. - To measure population genetic differences and intrapopulation genetic diversity using/learning quantitative genetic approaches that will allow students to gain experience in data analyses. Contact and supervision: José Alberto Ramirez Valiente 4) INTRODUCTION TO PLANT EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY AND EPIGENETICS Project Description: There has been a recent upsurge of interest on the ecological and evolutionary significance of epigenetic processes, which involve heritable phenotypic changes unrelated to alterations in DNA sequence. In the case of plants, mounting interest on epigenetic processes has been largely promoted by results showing that in some model species epigenetic changes in the phenotype can be induced by the environment and are often passed without alterations across generations. DNA cytosine methylation is a well-established epigenetic mechanism and the most studied one in plants. We will focus on DNA methylation and explore the general hypothesis that intense and recurrent water stress will induce heritable changes in DNA methylation that will differ between two non- model species, one characteristic of Mediterranean poor soils and, thus, usually facing this stress (Erodium cazorlanum) and the other characteristic of deeper soils and with a broader distribution range (Erodium cicutarium). Tasks to be carried out by the intern: The student will assist on greenhouse experiments aiming to test this hypothesis. The student will learn concepts of experimental design, methods of plant evolutionary ecology (phenotyping and fitness estimates) and will be introduced to molecular (epi)genetics. Among student’s tasks we include: preparation of seeds (counting, weighing, sowing, watering …), germination and survival monitoring, seedling phenotyping (number of leaves, leaf length, leaf specific mass, …), adult phenotyping (date of flowering, number of inflorescences, number of flowers/inflorescence, flower size, …). Student’s training will also benefit from attendance to the weekly seminars held at EBD. Contact and supervision: Conchita Alonso <[email protected]> Plant-animal interactions group <http://www.plant-animal.es/>, Evolutionary Ecology Department, Estación Biológica de Doñana, EBD-CSIC. 5) FROM CLIMATE TO PLANTS, INSECTS, AND BATS: THE STAPLE ISOTOPE CONNECTION IN ECOSYSTEMS Project Description: Ecological research is often concerned with trophic interactions (“who eats whom”) and how these interactions change through time. Stable isotope analysis is a fundamental method in ecology because it allows tracking the food sources and the movements of an animal. However, recent research by the host scientist (Popa-Lisseanu et al. 2015, PLoS ONE 10(2): e0117052) has shown that isotopic variation in animals can also reflect climatic changes, thus complicating the evaluation of trophic relationships and movement patterns. There are several mechanisms through which climatic variation could drive isotopic variation in animals. First, physiological condition could affect the way that isotopes from food are incorporated into the animal’s tissues, and physiological condition often tends to follow climatic cycles. A more straightforward explanation, however, is that climatic variation, particularly water stress, affects the way that plants regulate nutrient uptake