A position for a Postdoctoral Researcher is available to work on the project "Does competition really structure ant communities in tropical forest canopies?"
A highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher is sought to join a project that aims to explore the relative contribution of biotic (interspecies competition, forest structure) and abiotic effects (climate) on the
structuring of canopy ant communities in tropical rain forests. The successful candidate will co-design, and conduct field surveys, and experimental transplants of ant colonies across different forest systems and between dominant species territories in New Guinea, a region with globally high insect and plant diversity. In addition to innovative manipulations of species composition, the project will include functional and phylogenetic measures of ant diversity, and behavioural and thermal-tolerance experiments. He/she will have opportunities to develop the project, as well as to build upon existing plot-based datasets on the ants living in trees. Duties will include conducting and supervising the field work in Papua New Guinea, and working in our laboratory in the Czech Republic.
The successful applicant will join the Ant Research Group (http://antscience.com/) at the Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre CAS, Czech Republic, under the leadership of Dr. Petr Klimes. The research facility is in Ceske Budejovice, a charming historical city in the south of the country, within easy reach of Prague and Vienna. The laboratory is a dynamic, multinational group studying ant ecology. It is embedded within the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology of Prof. Vojtech Novotny (the head), a world-class centre for tropical ecology research that publish in leading journals (e.g. Ecology Letters, Ecography, Science). The applicant will also collaborate with New Guinea Binatang Research Centre and the Laboratory of Behavioural Ecology at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
The deadline for applications is January 15th 2021, with expected start date of April 1st 2021 (negotiable). The successful applicant will receive the full time employment with salary CZK 40,000 per month (approx. EUR 1500 pre-tax). Note that living costs in Czech Republic are substantially lower than in many other EU countries, and the salary is competitive (e.g. http://bit.ly/1NCkQKJ). The position is funded by a Czech Science Foundation grant until Dec 31st 2023. Applicants from all
countries are eligible.
Required
- A PhD degree in ecology or a related field.
- Interest in the ecology of insects.
- Ability to work independently and manage small team of assistants in the field, as well as collaborate with other senior and junior team members (i.e. co-supervise PhD students).
- Fluency in spoken English, and skills in academic writing in this language
- Good publication record for career stage
- Experience with ecological analyses on the species-rich communities
- Previous experience in the tropics, particularly in canopy ecology or manipulative experiments
- Research experience with ant ecology & entomology
- A strong publication record in the above fields
- Advanced analytical skills in R for the community ecology discipline
To apply, please send a CV, contact details for three references, and cover letter stating qualifications, previous work and motivation for the position to Jana Liparova (slancarova@entu.cas.cz). If you would like to discuss the project further, please feel free to contact Petr Klimes ( peta.klimes@gmail.com).
