Positions available at National Centre for Biological Sciences www.ncbs.res.in, India, at Uma Ramakrishnan’s lab.
Lab research website: http://www.ncbs.res.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=181 Investigating connectivity in the montane ‘sky-island’ ecosystem in the Western Ghats through genetics of a threatened, endemic bird, the White-bellied Shortwing Montane species live at high elevations, making their distributions naturally fragmented. Habitat degradation further accentuates fragmentation, making it critical to investigate connectedness between habitat patches for threatened, endemic montane species, such as the White-bellied Shortwing. We seek to use genetic tools to investigate both evolutionary (using slower evolving mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data) and historical (using faster evolving microsatellite data) connectivity in this species. The data we generate will aid in future conservation efforts for this species. We hope to extend this approach to other montane species, including shola and grassland specialist birds and plants. The project involves lab-based molecular biology, followed by extensive population genetics analyses. The position is available for 2.5 years (on this grant), extendable to 3 years (on other grants). Quantitative skills are very important for this position. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested. More details on the project are at www.tinyurl.com/robinv Conservation genetics of tigers in the Western Ghats Assemblages of large mammals decisively influence the structure and functioning of biological communities. We hope to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of tigers and their prey in the Malenad-Mysore Landscape of Karnataka. Specifically, we plan to estimate (1) density, abundance and demographic ratios of different tiger populations in the landscape, (2) vital rates, connectivity and movement among tiger populations and (3) genetic structure between and relatedness within tiger populations. A joint project between the WCS India and NCBS, we hope to use as combination of field and analytical methods, including distance sampling of herbivore prey, camera trap and genetic capture recapture sampling of tiger populations and modeling of spatial occupancy and movement rates through sign surveys and fecal-DNA genetic analyses. These data will enable estimation of meta-population dynamic patterns as well as understand the genetic structuring between sub-populations. The advertised position will be focused on tiger conservation genetics in the Western ghats: including individual identification and population connectivity. We are also interested in looking at other carnivores including leopards and possibly Dhole. Position will be primarily laboratory based, at NCBS. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested. Robin Vijayan Website: www.tinyurl.com/robinv Tel: +91 9449002297 National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science campus Bangalore 560012, India National Centre for Biological Sciences GKVK Campus, Bangalore 560065, India Narendra Babu Memorial Research Fund www.nberig.org
