PhD positions available in “ecological synthesis”
The Ecological Synthesis Lab (https://nau.edu/oglelab), directed by Dr. Kiona Ogle, at Northern Arizona University (NAU) has openings for one or more PhD positions in the areas of: (1) legacy effects of extreme climate events on carbon cycle processes and (2) environmental controls on species- and community-level vegetation dynamics. Both research areas focus on ecological systems in the arid and semi-arid western US. Students interested in area (1) would have the opportunity to work with tree-ring data from various sampling networks and/or carbon and water flux data from eddy covariance tower networks. Projects falling under this theme may explore how trees and/or ecosystems are impacted by prolonged drought, flash droughts, pluvial events, or heatwaves, with the goal of understanding the legacy effects of such events. Students interested in area (2) would work with long-term inventory and monitoring data from the National Park Service (NPS) and USGS, with a focus on identifying factors governing changes in species occurrence and abundance and potentially scaling up to evaluate drivers of community change. This project focuses on grassland and shrubland ecosystems in the western US.
Interested applicants must have solid quantitative abilities, including basic training in mathematics (e.g., at least 2 semesters of calculus) and statistics (e.g., at least one introductory statistics course), and possess good programming skills (e.g., R, Python, etc.). Prospectives should also possess good background knowledge in relevant fields of ecology/biology and have developed good written and oral communication skills. As part of their PhD program, students should be keenly interested in strengthening these quantitative skills and becoming proficient in Bayesian statistical methods, machine learning, and computing.
Interested students should contact Dr. Ogle by email (Kiona.Ogle@nau.edu).