The Ponisio Lab (www.ponisiolab.com) at the University of California
Riverside is seeking PhD students interested in species interactions and
community ecology.
The Ponisio Lab studies the mechanisms operating in complex systems,
specifically
ecological communities, that underlie diversity maintenance. The questions
we are currently tackling are along these lines: 1) How do the
characteristics of communities affect interaction patterns? 2) How do
interaction patterns feedback to affect the characteristics of communities?
3) How can we design (restore) degraded communities to promote stability
and evolutionary potential (applying all the principles learned from the
above)? As a lab, we adhere to best practices in reproducible science, so
applicants should have experience with/enthusiasm for learning about data
science.
We are beginning a new long-term experiment in the Madrean Sky Islands
asking how the interaction patterns at the individual, species and network
level effect ecosystem resilience and function, and how does the assembly
history of a community influence those patterns (
http://www.ponisiolab.com/networks-along-gradients.html). This is a
collaborative project with Shalene Jha at UT Austin and Terry Griswold at
the USDA Logan Bee Lab. We are particularly interested in students who
would like to be part of this work, however, research in the lab is diverse
and students will be encouraged to develop and pursue independent research
projects as part of their dissertation work.
Interested applicants should email Lauren Ponisio (lponisio@ucr.edu) to
discuss research opportunities and qualifications. Please include your CV
and a brief description of your research interests, including how they
align with the lab. We are also interested in students wishing to pursue a
fellowship through UC Mexus (a fellowship for Mexican students wishing to
pursue a graduate degree in the UC system).
—
Kaysee Tom
Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs
MPA in Environmental Science and Policy, 2014
University of California, Berkeley
BS in Environmental Science, 2013
(818) 645-9319 | kathleen.c.tom@gmail.com