The goals of this project are to mechanistically link climate, soil nitrogen cycling, plant morphological and nutritional phenology, and caribou population dynamics across five distinct caribou herds occupying an area of approximately 163,000 km2 in southwestern Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula. The successful applicant will conduct and collaborate in a variety of experimental and descriptive ecological studies spanninga range of spatial scales across this region, from the effects of snowon soil biogeochemistry at the square-meter scale to the movements and habitat use of caribou across landscape scales of hundreds of kilometers.

The postdoctoral fellow will join a team of researchers from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the University of Alaska in this multi-disciplinary project. The successful applicant will be expected to assist in supervising graduate and undergraduate students and to assist the primary investigators with project management. A PhD or previous postdoctoral research experience in landscape ecology,plant community ecology, plant-soil nutrition, remote sensing and geospatial analysis, and/or wildlife habitat ecology is preferred.

 The project is expected to begin in the summer of 2011 and extend through the summer of 2013. To be considered please apply posting number 0060111 here.

Screening of applicants will begin in June or July 2011. For further information, please search for posting number 0060111 here.

For questions, please contact:
Don Spalinger
Email: afdes@alaska.edu
Phone: 907-786-4703

Jeff Welker
Email: afjmw1@uaa.alaska.edu