PH.D STUDENT OPENING IN COMMUNITY ECOLOGY IN THE ERNEST LAB

The Ernest Lab at the University of Florida has an opening for a Ph.D student in the area of Community Ecology to start fall 2017.  The student will be supported as a graduate research assistant as part of an NSF-funded project at the Portal Project, a long-term research site in southeastern Arizona to study regime shifts (rapid shifts in ecosystem structure and function). A short version of the grant proposal can be found here. This position will participate in data collection efforts in Arizona on rodents and plants.

The Ernest lab is interested in general questions about the processes that structure communities, with a particular focus on understanding when and how ecological communities change through time. Students are free to develop their own research projects depending on their interests. Examples of questions in community ecology that students have pursued as part of their dissertation include: Does strong frequency dependence help buffer rare species from stochastic extinctions?, Are biodiversity patterns sensitive to changes in biotic interactions?, and Do disturbances impact species populations and community-level properties similarly?

The Ernest Lab is part of the Weecology research group, Weecology is a partnership between the Ernest Lab, which tends to be more field and community ecology oriented and the White Lab, which tends to be more quantitatively and computationally oriented. The Weecology group supports and encourages students interested in a variety of career paths. Former weecologists are currently employed in the tech industry, with the National Ecological Observatory Network, at teaching-focused colleges, and as postdocs in major research groups. We are also committed to supporting and training a diverse scientific workforce. Current and former group members include a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds from the U.S. and other countries, members of the LGBT community, military veterans, and students who are the first generation in their family to go to college.

Interested students should contact Dr. Morgan Ernest (skmorgane@ufl.edu) by Oct 24th, 2016 with their CV, transcripts (unofficial are perfectly ok),  and a brief statement of research interests.