Position Title: U.S. EPA ORISE Fellowship - Spatial Modeling of Ecological Assemblages in US Waterways
Expiration Date: 1/19/2023
Location: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pacific Ecological Systems Division, Corvallis, Oregon
Salary: BOE; see https://orise.orau.gov/epa/applicants/default.html#faq-appointment
Start date: 12/01/2022; Flexible
Last date to apply: 1/19/2023; Applications may be reviewed on a rolling-basis and this posting could close before the deadline
Description: A full-time EPA fellowship (post-doc or post-masters) is now available through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), located at EPA’s Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Pacific Ecological Systems Division (PESD) in Corvallis, Oregon. https://www.zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/EPA-ORD-CPHEA-PESD-2022-07
PESD researchers, in collaboration with EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics and EPA’s Office of Water, seek to improve the way EPA values freshwater ecosystems. A critical component of improving the valuation of aquatic resources will include modeling the distributions of aquatic taxa, such as stream macroinvertebrates and lake plankton, to characterize the biological status of freshwaters nationally. This research project will seek to develop models that can spatially predict the distributions of several taxonomic groups within streams and lakes across the conterminous US based on several thousand sample sites from EPA’s National Aquatic Resource Surveys and StreamCat and LakeCat datasets. These models could include individual- or multi-taxon niche models with various statistical or machine learning techniques, as well as evaluation of model accuracy. Later phases of the project could focus on developing methods to test the effects of management scenarios on aquatic assemblages, such as through structural equation models. For questions regarding the nature of the research, please contact Ryan Hill (hill.ryan@epa.gov). For additional details, including qualifications and how to apply, see the Zintellect link above.