We are seeking a PhD candidate to study the contribution of forest diversity to the achievement of sustainable forest management objectives. The candidate will be directed by Profs. Dominique Gravel and Robert Schneider from the Université du Québec à Rimouski, in collaboration with Christian Messier and Alain Paquette (UQAM), and Mathieu Fortin (INRA, Nancy).
Project description. The challenge of sustainable forest management is to satisfy simultaneously economical, social and environmental concerns. This project aims to maximize these three objectives by developing silvicultural practices that will promote diversity of forest stands. There is now a consensus, for several systems, that biodiversity has a positive effect on the provision of ecosystem services. Despite the documented advantages of a new silvicultural strategy that is explicitly based on the promotion of biodiversity, several barriers are preventing the application of this concept in current forestry practices. The general objective of this project is thus to evaluate operationally the effect of tree diversity on forest productivity and on the sustainable annual allowable cut. The project consists of developping regional growth and yield models that will account for competition and facilitation. The models will be developed from temporary and permanent sampling plots and an experimental design of high diversity plantations. The growth models will be used to evaluate the impact of different silvicultural practices promoting tree diversity on the sustainable annual allowable cut of representative management areas of temperate, mixed and boreal forests. Qualifications. An MSc degree in forestry, biology, environmental sciences or statistics is ideal, but other fields may be considered. Applicants should have a demonstrated interest in ecological modelling, working with large databases, a good statistical basis and some programming skills or at least a strong interest in learning it. We especially encourage creative students who are good at working in teams and have good writing and communication skills. Knowledge of French is not required but the student must be open to learn and work in a French environment. Instructions. Applications, including a letter describing research interests, a CV, copies of transcripts and the contact information (address, email and phone) for two references, or any questions about the project should be directed to [email protected]. A fellowship of 20 000$/yr for three years is offered. The starting date is September 2012. Studies will be conducted at the PhD biology program at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (http://www.uqar.ca). The student will be invited to join the activities of two dynamic laboratories (http://chaire-eec.uqar.qc.ca, http://www.uqar.ca/foret-habitee/) and an active team of collaborators from the Center for Forest Science (http//www.cef-cfr.ca/) and the Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science (http://qcbs.ca). The student will also benefit from the resources and training offered by a training program in forest complexity modeling (http://www.fcm.uqam.ca/). Dominique Gravel Chaire de recherche du Canada Écologie des écosystèmes continentaux Université du Québec à Rimouski 300 Allée des Ursulines Rimouski, Québec, G5L 3A1 (418) 723-1986 #1752 [email protected]
