Job Title: Looking for potential Ph.D. and post-doc NSERC applicants to work with the wild (feral) horses of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada with research focus on fundamental ecology and evolution (other funded applicants also considered). Note: students must be self-funded through a successful scholarship application.
Location: University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Closing: Please contact me by September 1, 2012 to put together an application for the October NSERC competition!! Apply: Email me a CV and pdf copies of both undergrad and graduate transcripts (unless interested in a post-doc, then only a CV is required). Email to [email protected]. Please write “Sable Island” as the subject line. Website http://mcloughlinlab.ca/lab Description: My lab is developing a long-term, individual-based program of research into the ecology and evolution of the feral horses living on Sable Island, Nova Scotia. As part of this initiative, I am looking to recruit two NSERC-eligible Ph.D. students or post-docs to ask fundamental questions of the population ecology, life history, behaviour, and evolution of the feral horse population. I am particularly looking for post-docs or mature M.Sc. students that are interested in developing a Ph.D. program that will contribute to and make use of the long-term data set my lab is collecting on the life histories of the horses on the island. This summer will be the fifth year of data collection, which includes summer censusing and identification of all individuals on the island using digital photography, and documentation of individual life histories with the goal of constructing whole-island pedigrees. Sample sizes are large, with 446 horses alive on the island as at Sept 2011. Ph.D. students with 2–3 years of further data collection will be in a position to ask interesting questions regarding individual-based dynamics, band dynamics and dispersal, behaviour and dominance, habitat selection, social networking, sex ratios and sexual selection, and questions involving traits such as body size and colouration patterns. Further sampling of DNA (requires additional funding; rooted hairs are in storage for most individuals) may allow for collaborative questions on genetics and evolution, including paternity and pedigree construction. Trends in the above will likely be related to a very strong and interesting gradient in habitat quality along the length of Sable Island from west to east, associated with availability of preferred forage and access to fresh water (horse density drops by half from west to east). The important thing is that applicants will be mature enough to develop their own insightful questions of ecology, using the system we have access to on Sable Island as a model. That said, our lab is following several lines of research that potential students may want to build on. Current students are studying or have studied spatial heterogeneity in horse population growth on the island, stress as it relates to band structure and dynamics from cortisol (from hair), parasites, dispersal, body size relationships, patterns in vegetation and successional dynamics, and spatial heterogeneity in isotopic signatures from vegetation samples and animal tissues to develop isoscapes from the transfer of marine-derived nutrients onto the island (from seals and seabirds). Opportunities to publish in good journals and set oneself up for a career in academia may be found here. Field work will occur principally in late summer on Sable Island; further information on this field site can be found at my lab website, below. Students can expect to publish outside of one’s own thesis topic as part of whole-lab research questions; however, we have immediate need for Ph.D. students ready to pursue dissertations surrounding the following topics: 1) Decomposition of population growth to individual contributions and relating an individual’s experience of the environment to fitness. This may entail matching an individual’s use of habitat to fitness, including interactions with local density and band structure, and a horse’s use of the island’s water resources, vegetation, and how this may be modified by the isoscape we are defining for Sable Island. The project will require developing an in-depth knowledge of every horse on the island and maintaining our Access database so that we can easily retrieve information on survival, reproduction, band associations, and locations. Excellent working knowledge of R and generalized linear models would be an asset. 2) Testing and developing new theory on sex ratios and the effects of habitat and body size on primary and adult sex ratios. This work will build on ongoing research on opportunities for sexual selection, which appears related to a west-east gradient in adult and operational sex ratios associated with density and habitat (2 papers in production). However, there is much more work to be done including application of trait data to the question. Successful applicants will require a Canadian NSERC PGS scholarship/fellowship or other secured source of scholarship funding (e.g., if an international student). At this time I am looking for eligible students that can apply this fall for an NSERC post-graduate scholarship or fellowship, to start in May 2013. Preference will be given to students that aspire to a career in academia and who have a track record that reflects this career goal. In addition to obtaining scholarships, students will be expected to apply for and help secure research funding for their own projects. Students and post-docs with funding in-hand are always welcome. Interested applicants should contact me by email ([email protected]), and be prepared to submit a current CV with copies of transcripts (unless a post-doc, in which case only a CV is needed). Website: http://mcloughlinlab.ca/lab/
