The deadiline for the Field Biology Program at the University of Notre Dame

Environmental Research Center is approaching fast!  Don’t miss out!

Your own field research =E2=80=A6 Classes in the field =E2=80=A6 3 credits/summer Tuition

and housing provided and a summer stipend ($3500 East, $4000 West)!!!

Apply now for UNDERC-East and -West for summer of 2018! These programs

promote understanding of field biology and how field research is conducted

through 10 weeks in the wilds. It begins with a summer at UNDERC-East in

Michigan=E2=80=99s Upper Peninsula and then the opportunity for a second summer at

-West in Montana. UNDERC-East is open to 28 sophomores/juniors from any

college/university. From the UNDERC-East class, 8 students (juniors or

seniors) are selected for UNDERC-West. Each summer, you receive

three-credits along with tuition, housing, travel between the Notre Dame

campus and the site, and a stipend ($3500 at East, $4000 at West).

1)  UNDERC-East (May 21=E2=80=93 July 27): 8000 acres of lakes, streams, wetlands,

and forests owned by Notre Dame and a core site in the National Ecological

Observatory Network (NEON) that are home to abundant wildlife (including

beaver, porcupine, black bear, deer, loon). Course modules include

vertebrate ecology, invertebrate ecology, aquatic ecology and forest

ecology with each providing background information, field research

exercises, and group research projects designed by the class. Five or more

weeks are spent by each student designing and conducting their own field

research project under direction of faculty or graduate students. Projects

have ranged from fish, insect and mammal behavior and ecology to forest,

lake and stream ecosystem ecology to local Native American ecosystem use.

2)  UNDERC-West (June 6 =E2=80=93 August 15, pre-requisite is UNDERC-East): Explore

more than a million acres on the National Bison Range and Flathead Reservation

that includes grasslands, montane forests, streams and lakes that are home

to abundant wildlife (including bison, elk, mountain lions and grizzly

bear). Course modules like those at UNDERC-East include wildlife ecology,

grassland ecology, and montane ecology, as well as an environmental

history/Native American ecology module (in part during the cross-country

drive to and from -West). Each student conducts an independent research

project in collaboration with a faculty or graduate

student advisor that is more advanced given the skills learned at

UNDERC-East. Recent projects have included invasive plant ecology,

animal behavior

and habitat relationships, grassland, forest, wetland and stream dynamics,

and Native American plant and wildlife use. Applications are available

online (http://underc.nd.edu).

Further information can be obtained at the UNDERC website (

http://underc.nd.edu), or from Dr. Michael Cramer, UNDERC East Assistant

Director (mcramer@nd.edu), or Dr. David Flagel, UNDERC West Assistant

Director (dflagel@nd.edu). Application deadline is Friday, November 10,

2017 and notification of acceptance will be provided by Monday, December

11, 2017. Acceptance is based on past academic performance and a statement

of purpose. Preference is given to students pursuing a career in

environmental sciences. Applicants are required to be present for the

duration of the course.

— Dr. David Flagel

Assistant Director, West

University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center

Office Phone: 574-631-2612

Position Information:

Title:=09=09Tropical Conservation/Avian Ecology Intern

Organization:=09Third Millennium Alliance, El Observatorio de Aves Jama-

Coaque

Location:=09Reserva Jama-Coaque, Manab=ED province, Ecuador

Start dates: =09Multiple, see tmalliance.org/internships

Summary: Third Millennium Alliance (TMA) is a registered non-profit dedicated to conserving the last remnants of Pacific Ecuadorian Forests and empowering local communities to restore what has been lost. The organization=92s flagship project is the Jama-Coaque Bird Observatory (El Observatorio de Aves Jama-Coaque, OAJC) =96 Ecuador=92s first international bird observatory dedicated to long-term, year-round avian monitoring, research, conservation and capacity-building. TMA and OAJC offer local and international interns the opportunity to engage in hands-on research in diverse tropical environments from dry to humid to premontane cloud forest over the course of 1-6 months. Each internship session begins with an intensive two-week training period followed by fieldwork allowing interns to handle more birds and master challenging techniques. Interns joining the TMA/OAJC team in 2018 will dive into a number of mist-netting and ornithology projects as well as a study investigating nesting ecology of the endangered Gray-cheeked Parakeet and other cavity-nesters. Long-

term interns are encouraged to pursue their passions by developing independent projects with TMA/OAJC staff and to take on leadership positions in our field teams.

TMA was founded in 2007 with the purchase of 100 acres and the establishment of the Jama-Coaque Reserve (JCR) in Manab=ED province between the cities of Jama and Pedernales, 4km inland from the Pacific Ocean. Now encompassing over 1,300 acres, the Jama-Coaque Reserve protects some of the last remaining fragments of Pacific Ecuadorian Forest =96 one of the most critically threatened tropical forests in the world. Our organization has been running a hands-on, experiential learning-based internship program in the fields of Tropical Ecology/Conservation and Sustainable Agriculture since 2008, with more than 250 young and enthusiastic students from around the globe participating to date.

A complete program description with the 2018 schedule and associated costs can be found on our website (www.tmalliance.org/internships), where you will also find additional details, the application form, contact information, various media and answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

Prerequisites:

Prior experience working with birds or other wildlife is not required but is encouraged. In addition to the intensive two-week training period at the start of each session, interns may be asked to review literature supplied by TMA before arriving for their programs. While Spanish language proficiency is not expected, it is recommended as we work in a bilingual environment, and it can improve the overall experience. At the very least, we encourage visitors to be open to learning. Interns will receive the full tropical field ornithology experience, which means many mornings spent waking before the sun and hiking in challenging field conditions while carrying equipment, thus applicants should be in good physical condition. Given these realities, a passion for conservation and wildlife (especially birds!), a strong work ethic, and a positive attitude are both critical to your success and our top requirements for applicants.

Accreditation:

While TMA is not currently in a position to offer college credit or scholarships to international interns, our staff are happy to assist students who wish to pursue independent credits and/or scholarships through their universities or elsewhere. Many previous students have successfully received credit for their time with TMA, often at lower costs than typical class credits.

A Masters position is available for a qualified individual to work on a

collaborative project with Michigan Technological University, Ottawa

National Forest, The Nature Conservancy, and Wisconsin DNR.  The project=E2=

=80=99s

goal is to quantify successional pathways and fire frequency in wetlands in

the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The student will work closely with both

PI=E2=80=99s (Rod Chimner and Evan Kane at Michigan Tech) and other collabo=

rators.

Strong soils and paleoecological skills are a plus.  The student will also

TA a senior level Wetland Ecology course during the fall semesters.

Michigan Tech is located in Michigan’s scenic Upper Peninsula, on the south

shore of Lake Superior, surrounded by abundant forests, wetlands, and

streams.  The area provides a unique setting where natural beauty, outdoor

recreation, culture, education, and a diversity of residents from around

the world come together to share a superb living and learning experience.

Consideration of applications begins immediately and will continue until

the positions are filled. Start date is flexible. Please send a cover

letter that states your research interests, your curriculum vitae, and any

other relevant materials, and provide the names and contact information for

three references, by email to Rod Chimner (rchimner@mtu.edu)

—

Professor of Wetland Ecology

School of Forest Resources and Env. Science

Michigan Tech University

1400 Townsend Drive

Houghton, MI 49931

Phone: (906) 487-1464

I am recruiting two MS or PhD level graduate students starting in the summer or fall of 2018. Students will have flexibility in their projects, but potential themes could include post-fire regeneration across ecological gradients, effectiveness of fuels treatments or post-

fire management, or quantifying mixtures of fire severity in the past, present, and/or future.

For more information, please contact Larissa Yocom at larissa.yocom@usu.edu. If you=92d like to apply, please send me 1) a letter describing your research interests, 2) a resume or CV, 3) GRE scores, 4) unofficial transcripts, and 5) names and contact information for 3 references.

Graduate students may obtain degrees through the Department of Wildland Resources or the Ecology Center at Utah State. Utah State is located in Logan, which is 85 miles north of Salt Lake City and positioned in a scenic mountain basin with nearby wilderness areas, ski resorts, forests, lakes, rivers, and mountains. The cost of living in Logan is low, the community is very safe, and it is within a day’s drive of multiple national parks.

Links: https://qcnr.usu.edu/wild/index

http://ecology.usu.edu/

Hello everyone,

I am seeking two highly motivated graduate students to join my Water Resources Lab at Miami University (OH) to examine *Beaver Impacts on Stream-Riparian Habitats and Water Quality in SW Ohio.*

*Project Description:  *Starting in the summer or fall of 2018 student 1 will focus on determining the spatial distribution and site characteristics of beaver dams, ponds, and beaver-created riparian wetlands (along with their attributes) on public lands in southwestern Ohio. Student 2 will focus on determining how beaver habitat modifications impact stream nutrient (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, soluble phosphate) and suspended sediment concentrations.

-This interdisciplinary project will be completed with close collaboration with USEPA (via the Cincinnati Research Office), the Biology Department at Miami University, and other local environmental agencies in SW Ohio.

– Students will work within the newly renovated Water Resources Lab (overseen by Dr. Grudzinski) and Center for Aquatic and Watershed Science at Miami University.

-The Water Resources Lab has interdisciplinary collaboration established with various departments at Miami University including ~30 faculty and staff affiliated with the Center for Aquatic and Watershed Science. See:

http://miamioh.edu/cas/academics/centers/caws/ for additional details.

-The Geography Department at Miami University (OH) provides competitive prospective graduate students with two years of funding in the form of teaching assistantships and summer scholarships. Student travel funding is provided to present research at local, regional, and national conferences.

Currently, several grants are under review which may lead to Research Assistantships.

Degree: Master of Arts in Geography

Application Deadline: *February 1st 2018*

For additional information or to schedule a visit to the department please contact Dr. Bartosz Grudzinski at grudzibp@maimioh.edu. Dr. Grudzinski=E2=80=99s lab page can be found at *Grudzinskilab.weebly.com <http://Grudzinskilab.weebly.com> *

Many thanks,

Bart

— Dr. Bartosz Grudzinski

Assistant Professor

Department of Geography

Miami University, Oxford, OH

<p>Boston UniverCity NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program<br> Apply for Fall 2018 Admission</p>

<p>The Boston UniverCity NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program solicits applications for Fall 2018 admission. The Boston UniverCity program trains PhD students to tackle=20 urban environmental challenges through interdisciplinary instruction in Biogeoscience, Environmental Health, City Governance, field methods, data analysis, and science communication.</p>

Program features:

<ul>

<li>Training for diverse careers in academia, government agencies, non-governmental organization, and the private sector</li> <li>Open to PhD students in Biology, Earth & Environment, Environmental Health, and=20 related fields</li> <li>Research partnerships with city governments, non-governmental organization, and the=20 private sector</li> <li>Training in science communication through writing of editorials, making of short films,=20 and interactions with the public</li> <li>Guaranteed support for five years for tuition and stipend</li> </ul>

<p>For admission, please apply to the Boston University graduate program of your choice=20 (e.g. Biology, Earth & Environment, Environmental Health) and identify Boston UniverCity=20 NRT in your Statement of Purpose. Prospective students should also contact potential PhD=20 advisers directly. Students from diverse backgrounds and those traditionally underrepresented in environmental fields are especially encouraged to apply.</p>

<p>Questions? Contact the Boston UniverCity Program Director, Dr. Pamela Templer, at=20 ptempler@bu.edu with the subject of your message equal to NRT Questions.</p> <p>———————————————————<br>

Pamela Templer, PhD <br>

Professor of Biology<br>

Director, PhD Program in Biogeoscience</p>

<p>Boston University<br>

Boston, MA 02215<br>

5 Cummington Mall<br>

http://people.bu.edu/ptempler/<br>

http://www.bu.edu/bio-geo/</p>

Graduate positions (MS/PhD) are available in the Leonard lab at the

University of Nevada, Reno for Fall 2018. Research in our group focuses on

the nutritional, sensory, and cognitive drivers of plant-pollinator

interactions.

Although students develop their own projects, current areas of particular

interest involve 1) exploring how pesticide exposure impacts bumblebee

foraging behavior, nutritional state, and sensory systems and 2)

understanding how human activities affect the composition of floral rewards.

The lab is home to researchers with diverse backgrounds in animal behavior,

pollination ecology, and plant biology.

Interested students should read more at the lab website:

http://www.anneleonard.com/prospective-students/=20

and plan to contact Anne Leonard anneleonard(at)unr.edu by Dec. 1, 2017.

The Biology Department at UNR has particular strengths in plant-animal

interactions, chemical ecology, and sensory biology. It is a highly

collaborative and dynamic research environment, home to some 60 graduate

students and 27 faculty. To learn more about admissions requirements and

processes, applicants should visit the website for the doctoral program in

Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology (https://www.unr.edu/eecb) or

the masters program in Biology (https://www.unr.edu/degrees/biology/ms).

Reno is situated in the high desert on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada

mountain range, 30 minutes from scenic Lake Tahoe and 3.5 hours from the San

Francisco Bay Area. It offers a high quality of life, a low cost of living,

and close proximity to Great Basin and Sierra field sites.

Doctoral (and/or MS) Graduate Student position is available at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Department of Biology, in Dr. Mark Hester=92s Coastal Plant Ecology Laboratory. This program is seeking a graduate student to conduct monthly ecological monitoring of a wastewater treatment plant assimilation wetland located near Lafayette, Louisiana. Students will perform routine monitoring of soil parameters, water quality, and plant cover and species richness to study the effects of treated wastewater on a freshwater wetland habitat. This student will be co-advised by Dr. Mark Hester (UL Lafayette Department of Biology) and Dr. Taylor Sloey (UL Lafayette Institute for Coastal and Water Research). Successful applicants must be enthusiastic, self-motivated, be a team player and able to work well both independently, display strong oral and written communication skills, and possess both the physical and mental attributes required to collect data in strenuous field conditions. Additional desirable skills include an educational background in plant, soil, and/or water science, plant ecophysiology, and statistical ecology. The applicant should have an interest in applied biological sciences, be disciplined, capable of managing project timelines and deliverables, and should expect to reside in Louisiana to perform monthly monitoring of the study site.

Competitive graduate research assistantship funding and tuition waivers are available to support the successful applicant. Interested applicants should send any questions and/or the following application materials in an email to Dr. Taylor Sloey (tsloey@louisiana.edu) by November 23, 2017.

1) Letter of Interest (1 page)

2) Curriculum vita

3) GPA and GRE percentile score

4) Unofficial transcripts

www.coastalresearch.louisiana.edu/student-opportunities

Current research projects in the lab seek to understand the physiological ecology of plant-insect interactions, link broad-scale climate data to the microclimates relevant to small ectotherms, and predict how ectotherms will perform in those microclimates now and in the future. These topics are addressed using a combination of field and lab experiments. We=92re also starting to do more analyses of large gridded data sets on climate, so students with strong computational and programming skills (e.g., R, python) are encouraged to apply.

The University of Montana is home to a strong collection of faculty researching ecology and evolution. The Division of Biological Sciences hosts an excellent graduate program in Organismal Biology and Ecology (OBE) with an emphasis on interdisciplinary training in evolution, genetics, ecology, organismal biology, and behavior. Missoula is a great college town in the heart of the Northern Rocky Mountains.

For more information on the Woods lab please visit: http://hs.umt.edu/dbs/labs/woods/

Interested students are encouraged to email Dr. Woods (art.woods@mso.umt.edu). Please include a brief description of your research interests and a CV in your email. Note that applications for Fall 2018 admission to the OBE program must be submitted by December 1st.

PhD positions in Plant-Insect Interactions-University of California Riverside

  Graduate assistantships are available in the area of plant response to herbivory in the Nabity lab at University of California-Riverside beginning 2018. There is flexibility in the project but the successful applicant/s will initially focus on research using genomics to understand how insect herbivores evolve. Current lab projects focus on identifying insect effectors that transform plant form and function, identifying plant signaling networks that underlie resistance/tolerance, and comparative analyses of both plants and insects under a changing climate. More information is available at www.nabitylab.org.

  Travel, field and greenhouse experiments, and molecular lab work will all be part of the successful projects. Students will also have opportunities to conduct fieldwork in the University of California Natural Reserves (www.ucnrs.org). Students will be able to join through one of multiple departments, including Botany and Plant Sciences (www.plantbiology.ucr.edu), Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology (EEOB: http://eeob.ucr.edu) or Entomology (www.entomology.ucr.edu) and participate in interdisciplinary programs as appropriate. UCR is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer with a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity.=20   To apply, please contact Dr. Nabity (pauln@ucr.edu) as soon as possible with your CV, GRE scores, and a brief description of current interests. Full applications to the individual programs are due by December 1.