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Postdoctoral Fellowship: Structural and functional responses to stressor gradients in Mississippi Alluvial Plain streams at the National Sedimentation Laboratory, Oxford, MS.

Posted: 
06/02/2020
Expiration Date: 
08/30/2020

We are pleased to announce a postdoctoral research opportunity to examine structural and functional responses to stressor gradients in Mississippi Alluvial Plain streams. This competitive postdoctoral opportunity is with Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education and is located in the Water Quality & Ecology Research Unit at US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service’s National Sedimentation Laboratory in Oxford, Mississippi. Application period is open until a suitable candidate is found but target start date is July/August 2020. Please share with those who may be interested. Web address: https://www.zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/USDA-ARS-2020-0124

Overview

The Water Quality & Ecology Research Unit (USDA-ARS) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, in association with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), are pleased to announce a postdoctoral research opportunity collaborating with a team of ARS/USGS research scientists to examine stream ecosystem structural and functional responses to field and experimental stressor gradients in Mississippi Alluvial Plain streams.

This research will address challenges and management solutions for insuring long term sustainability of Lower Mississippi River Basin agroecosystems. A primary goal of this research is to develop stressor-response relationships between nutrients and sediments and key measures of ecosystem structure and function in agricultural watersheds within the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) region.

The work will initially focus on existing physical, chemical and biological data to quantify spatial and temporal variability of conditions among stream/bayou habitats. The candidate will work with USDA-ARS and USGS scientists to design and conduct new field and experimental studies that measure ecological structural and functional measures (diatom community structure, stream metabolism, extracellular enzyme responses, nutrient uptake, denitrification, etc.) across field sites and experimental mesocosms representing environmental gradients in MAP streams. Results will support development of indicators or new approaches to monitoring the long-term response of stream ecosystems to changes in agricultural best management practices within alluvial plain landscapes. Results will also help identify drivers of overall nutrient cycling patterns in alluvial plain streams.

The preferred candidate will have a Ph.D. in aquatic ecology, microbial ecology, stream biogeochemistry, or environmental science. S/he will have some combination of experience that includes (1) collecting biological, habitat, and geomorphology data from stream habitats, (2) planning, execution, and maintenance of data streams using a variety of high frequency sensors (dissolved oxygen, PAR, stage, nitrate, etc) in stream habitats for metabolism measures, (3) collecting and analyzing dissolved gases using Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) for estimating gas flux rates using laboratory incubations or in situ techniques, and (4) analyzing complex datasets with a variety of statistical approaches using R programming language.

Funding is available for a two-year postdoctoral research.

Feel free to reach out with any questions to Jason Taylor (jason.taylor@usda.gov) or Matt Hicks (mhicks@usgs.gov).