Research Fellowship: Ecosystem Resilience and Bio-Physical Process
Bangor University – School of Ocean Sciences
Salary: £31,324 to £37,394 (Grade 7) p.a.
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Contract / Temporary
Placed on: 29th December 2014
Closes: 4th February 2015
Job Ref: BU00781
Bangor University, Cardiff University and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) invite applications for a 44-month, full-time Research Fellowship to investigate how coastal and estuarine landscapes are shaped by interactions of biological resilience with environmental change. Salt marshes are important for flood protection, but undergo sudden shifts in area cover and distribution. The causes for such shifts are unclear. Drivers may be environmental (hydrology, sediment supply, etc), biological (vegetation cover, biodiversity, etc) or anthropogenic (construction, grazing, etc), with factors operating and interacting at different scales to shape marshes and coastal landscapes.
The Fellowship is with the RESILCOAST project – a multi-disciplinary research cluster with seven academic institutions in the UK and Netherlands – which studies the dynamics of salt marsh regime shifts and resilience and the implications of these to coastal management planning. RESILCOAST is funded by the National Research Network for Low carbon Energy and the Environment (NRN-LCEE. https://www.nrn-lcee.ac.uk/resilcoast/research.php.en).
The Fellow will combine field and flume research with aerial-survey data and numerical modelling to examine marsh resilience to change, and to forecast shifts in marsh distribution. The Research Fellow’s work will link with two PhD studentships (Bangor and Swansea Universities), and will liaise with a second Fellow working on socio-policy and economics with Cardiff University. The Fellowship comes with an independent research budget, including funds for training, and the expectation to contribute to further research-grant applications to promote the project and the Fellow’s personal career. The Fellow will be based at Bangor and may choose to spend periods at partner institutions to suit research needs.
This post is an ideal opportunity for an ambitious individual to demonstrate leadership in high-impact research. We seek an interactive, driven and talented individual with a strong interest in multi-disciplinary research, ideally of a bio-physical nature. To be considered, applicants must be 2-8 years into their postdoctoral careers and have a minimum of five publications in peer-reviewed journals. Applicants should have a background in relevant environmental research (ecology, geomorphology, oceanography, hydrology, other) and significant experience with designing and organising experiments. Experience with mathematical modelling is expected, although ecologists with a strong background in numerate research are encouraged to apply. Evidence of experience with research student supervision, GIS and R-statistics are desirable, but not essential. The position is open to non-EU citizens.
The post has an expected start date in March-May 2015. The closing date for applications is midnight on February 4th 2015. Interviews are planned for end of February, early March. Please submit an up-to-date CV, a covering letter, 2 academic references and a completed application form. Applications will only be accepted via our on-line recruitment website, jobs.bangor.ac.uk. However, in cases of access issues due to disability, paper application forms are available by telephoning 01248 383865. Informal enquiries about the post may be made to Dr Martin Skov (mwskov@bangor.ac.uk). Bangor is committed to Equal Opportunities.
