Ph.D. and M.Sc. graduate positions in Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology Paul Grogan, Department of Biology, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Our lab is focused on understanding how terrestrial ecosystems function and why they are structured the way they are (http://post.queensu.ca/~groganp/). We investigate biogeochemical interactions between plants, herbivores, soil microbes, and soils that significantly affect ecosystem functioning. Right now, we are interested in gaining a better understanding of the controls on carbon and nutrient cycling and their interactions in arctic tundra, temperate grassland and forest ecosystems, and have experiments and collaborations across Canada as well as in Alaska and Scandinavia. The underlying rationale for our research is that an improved understanding of biogeochemical interactions is essential to predicting the impacts of perturbations such as changes in climate and land-use management, and therefore to developing appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies. Here are just two of many questions that I would be interesting in developing with new graduate students: How do the differences between nitrogen and phosphorus biogeochemistry influence our understanding of low arctic tundra ecosystems, and how they will be affected by climate change? What is the relative importance of top-down (deer herbivory) and bottom-up (water and nutrient availability) controls on primary production and plant community composition in temperate grasslands? Applicants should e-mail me ([email protected]) with a short CV and an insightful paragraph outlining specifics of how your research interests and experience would contribute to, and the kinds of questions you would like to address. We currently have funding for two graduate positions and will begin reviewing applications on April 21st, 2011. Queens is very highly rated within Canada as a medium-sized university that balances innovative world class research with excellent undergraduate and graduate education (http://www.queensu.ca/). The Department of Biology (http://www.queensu.ca/biology/index.html) and associated departments on campus offer a wide range of faculty with interests and skills relevant to our labs research including the ecology of plant communities and vegetation succession, nucleic acid analyses and metagenomics, epifluorescence microscopy, soil bacterial tolerance to freeze-thaw, ecosystem trace gas production, regional and landscape-level patterns of soil biogeochemistry, remote sensing, and isotope analyses. Queens is located in the particularly attractive and historical city of Kingston, which is centered about 2 hours drive from Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa (within Eastern Canada) and Syracuse, New York.
