I am currently looking for potential Ph.D. candidates (or stellar M.Sc. candidates) to apply for an international scholarship that our university offers (the Dean's Scholarship, $20,000 CAD for at least two years), or Canadian Ph.D. and M.Sc. candidates to develop an application for the Canadian NSERC post-graduate scholarships competition this coming October. Successful students will join a vibrant team tackling fundamental questions of ecology and evolution as part of my lab's long- term individual-based project on the wild (feral) horses of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada (see full opportunity description, below). Only scholarship-funded students would be able to join, with a start date anticipated May 1 2013, or Jan 1 2013 if the student obtains a Dean's Scholarship (Dec competition).
NOTE: Competition is tough for these scholarships, and if you do not have more than an 80-85% average (at least A- to A, preferably higher) and evidence of having published papers in peer-reviewed journals in the past, your application is not likely to be considered. Location: University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (see lab website at http://mcloughlinlab.ca/lab) Field Work: Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada Closing: Review of applications will begin on or about Sept 30, 2012 To Apply: Email me a CV and pdf copies of both undergrad and graduate transcripts. Email to [email protected]. Please write “Sable Island” as the subject line. 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 students to ask fundamental questions of the population ecology, life history, behaviour, and evolution of the feral horse population. I am particularly looking for mature 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. Next summer will be the sixth 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 around 500 horses alive on the island as at Aug 2012. 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 [465 sampled last year]) 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 seal and seabird transfer of marine-derived nutrients onto the island. 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 relate to 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 with respect to sexual selection, including application of trait data to the question. 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/
