4 year PhD position in the analysis of biological records (funded)
Details of the PhD are here: http://www.ucd.ie/ecomodel/resilience.html#phd
Ecology now has a huge resource of biological recording data, collected by
a wide range of people: citizen scientists, specialist recording
volunteers, scientific field data (to name a few). These citizen science
data contain valuable information on ecosystem biodiversity and how it is
changing through time. However, the data also contain many confounding
factors, such as variation from place to place in the intensity of
recording (the recorder effort). How best should these data be used to
guide conservation and policy? Are these data reliable for detecting
changes in a species' numbers? How does citizen biological recording data
compare to targeted monitoring schemes?
This PhD project is based around the analysis of biological recording data,
and will:
- assess existing approaches to the analysis of biological recording
data that aim to correct for confounding factors (e.g. FRESCALO
<http://www.brc.ac.uk/biblio/frescalo-computer-program-analyse-your-biological-records>,
Good-Turing estimators
<https://methodsblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/entropy-pearl/> or
occupancy-detection models),
- develop new spatial statistics for estimating species richness and
species turnover
- apply these approaches to biological records data in Ireland.
The PhD candidate will be based at UCD for 4-years. The candidate should
have a minimum of a 2.1 undergraduate science degree (or equivalent) with a
strong quantitative background (a BSc. in a quantitative subject or a
biological science degree with evidence of strong quantitative skills). The
student will have the chance to work with the three postdocs on the
project, the three PIs and project collaborators.
The PhD is under the supervision Dr Jon Yearsley (UCD), with co-supervisors
Dr Tomas Murray (National Biodiversity Data Centre) and Dr Dinara Sadykova
(Queen's University Belfast). The PhD position is in collaboration with the
National Biodiversity Data Centre in Waterford (
http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/), and will involve a work placement at
the data centre.
The position comes with a consumables budget, a stipend of 18,000 euro per
year and 5,500 euro per year towards fees.
For further details of this post please contact: Jon Yearsley (
Jon.Yearsley@xxxxxx)
Applications
*To apply, send a current CV and a covering letter be sent to Jon Yearsley
(Jon.Yearsley@xxxxxx <Jon.Yearsley@xxxxxx>) by Wednesday 21st December 2016*
--
Jon Yearsley
Lecturer in Ecological Modelling
UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science
UCD Earth Institute
University College Dublin
Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
Email: jon.yearsley@xxxxxx
Tel: +353 1 716 2265
http://www.ucd.ie/bioenvsci/ourstaff/academic/yearsleyjon
http://www.ucd.ie/ecomodel
https://twitter.com/JonYearsley
