About the position

The Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) has a vacant 3-year postdoctoral position. The position is funded by the Research Council of Norway.

Norwegian University of Life Sciences

NMBU has a special responsibility for research and education that ensures the basis of life for future generations.

Sustainability is rooted in everything we do and we provide knowledge for life.

NMBU has 1700 employees and 5200 students and is organized in seven faculties. NMBU has a campus in Ås and in Oslo. In the autumn of 2020 we are co-located on Ås. Further information on NMBU is available at www.nmbu.no.

About MINA

The Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA) works with nature and the environment, sustainable use of natural resources, biological and geological processes.

MINA’s employees undertake teaching, research and dissemination within the fields of geology, hydrology and limnology, soil science, environmental chemistry, forestry, ecology, natural resource management, renewable energy, and nature-based tourism.

Our vision is to be a key actor in knowledge production and dissemination, and our goal is to deliver research of high, international quality, and varied and excellent teaching. The faculty’s employees are significant participants within their respective fields of expertise, both nationally and internationally.
The faculty is dominated by a vital research culture and high levels of scientific production.

The faculty has about 200 employees, 90 PhD students and 650 students.

Read more about MINA here.

The proposed project aims to investigate the degree to which (over)harvest of large-bodied terrestrial vertebrates is an anthropogenic driver of carbon stock change in structurally undisturbed Amazonian forests. To achieve this, we will take advantage of a 50-year old basin-wide network of tree plots that predate modern human disturbances.

Re-sampling trees from a select set of forest plots across the Brazilian Amazon will allow us to examine changes in forest composition and aboveground biomass/carbon stocks over five decades.

By relating this to hunting pressure and other environmental gradients, we will detect the drivers of potential change. The direct impact of hunting on the terrestrial fauna will be quantified via metabarcoding analysis of DNA from carrion flies. In addition, we will sample a whole range of other taxa from the selected localities across the entire Brazilian Amazon.

Main tasks

The successful candidate is expected to;

• Be heavily involved in the multi-taxa, cross-site, community ecology analysis for our ongoing series of standardized biodiversity inventories across the Brazilian Amazon.
• Help us understand the basin-wide beta-diversity gradients of 14 taxonomic groups of plants, vertebrates and invertebrates.

There is also an opportunity for work on automated species detection using bioacoustics.

Qualification requirements, desired experiences, knowledge and personal qualities

The successful applicant must hold a PhD degree within a relevant scientific area and be accomplished in writing and statistics. This post-doctoral position requires strong ecological and analytical capacity and aptitude, intellectual curiosity and flexibility to pursue strong research interests.

Required Academic qualifications

• Excellent knowledge of community ecology

The following experiences and skills will be emphasized:

• Interest in molecular-based data
• Programming skills and a demonstrated ability to work with GIS and R environments
• Interest and/or experience with metagenomics and bioinformatics
• Research experience from tropical forests
• Strong record of publication in peer-reviewed journals

Applicants will be evaluated according to the aforementioned criteria, based on information provided in the online application form and up to 3 writing examples (published articles, reports, and/or PhD thesis) submitted with the application.

You need to:

• Have good collaborative skills and ambition to publish in high-calibre journals
• Be results-oriented, targeted and dedicated
• Be creative and accomplished in writing

Knowledge of Portuguese is desirable.

Remuneration and information

The position is placed in government pay scale position code 1352 Postdoctoral Fellow, wage framework 24 (salary grade 57-65) (NOK 504.700 – 583.900), depending on qualifications.

For further information, please contact:

• Prof. Torbjørn Haugaasen, E-mail:torbjorn.haugaasen@nmbu.no
• Prof. Carlos Peres, C.Peres@uea.ac.uk

Information to applicants

Application

To apply online for this vacancy, please click on the 'Apply for this job' button above. This will route you to the University's Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Application deadline: 06.02.2020

Up to ten publications selected by the applicant as most relevant must be attached to the application. If it is difficult to identify the contribution of the applicant in multiple-author publications, a short explanation about the applicant’s part of the work is suggested.

Printed material which cannot be sent electronically should be sent by surface mail to Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA), P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, within February 6th, 2020. Please quote reference number 20/00205

Applicants invited for an interview will be asked to present verified copies of diplomas and certificates.

Apply for this job