Hi folks,

Thought that the scholars among us might be interested in this study
opportunity from the austral quarters. Please respond to Dr. Moller,
not me.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 08:11:29 +1200
From: Henrik Moller <henrik.moller at stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
To: SEABIRD at UCT.AC.ZA

PHD AND POST-DOCS WANTED FOR SOOTY SHEARWATER
STUDIES: POPULATION GENETICS, MODELLING, MARK &
RECAPTURE MATHEMATICS & DENSITY DEPENDENCE

We are now 4 years into an intensive study assessing the role of the
traditional muttonbirding harvest by Rakiura Maori on population
dynamics of sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) in southern New
Zealand. We began 3 years before the main study with mark and
recapture at one site, but since 1997 have been banding at 5 major
study areas to assess survival and recruitment. This provides a
strong and growing database on mark and recapture to develop mark
and recapture mathematical theory and practice. We are seeking a
PhD student or post-doctoral fellow to work with Dr Richard Barker
(Maths & Stats Department, University of Otago), a mathematician in
our team. A PhD student, Christine Hunter, has developed a series of
preliminary mathematical models for shearwater dynamics based mainly
on Short-tailed shearwater data from Australia. We now need a PhD or
Post-doctoral Fellow to work on adjusting the models for sooty
shearwaters and further refining their structure, working with David
Fletcher (Maths & Stats) and Dr Harald Steen (Zoology Department),
both mathematical modellers in the team. We may also need a third
PhD student to tackle issues of density dependence emerging from
another PhD study by Paul Scofield that is in its mid to late phase.
This project would be supervised by Henrik Moller, a population
ecologist and co-principal investigator (along with David Fletcher)
of the team. Finally we hope to start a genetics study to estimate
migration rates between colonies within the sooty shearwater
meta-population. This will involve a study of genetic divergence on
large geographical scales (East and West South America, subantarctic,
New Zealand and Australian samples). If some genetic variation is
found, we hope to measure migration rates and to learn whether
migration rates are density dependent. A post-doctoral or PhD study
using micro-satellite techniques in nuclear and mitocondrial DNA is
envisaged as the first step. The geneticist would work with Dr
Michael Roy, a conservation geneticist from the Department of Zoology
at Otago University. Genetic sampling is greatly facilitated by being
able to gather flesh samples from chicks harvest from over 20 island
in southern New Zealand.

We do not have funding for any of the positions formalised but will
work with the candidates to secure funding from elsewhere. We do
have a substantial grant to pay for equipment and travel to several
remote islands to do the work. We hope that the mathematicians and
modellers joining the team will also contribute to the fieldwork and
group data gathering as part of their privilege of drawing from the
past data. We hope to start 2 - 3 candidates on the work before the
2000/2001 breeding season. This means that candidates should ideally
start here somewhere around September 2000, but other projects could
start the following year.

If you are interested in joining the team please write to us soon
outlining your experience and interests in detail and providing a CV.
Some ideas on potential funding sources would also be welcomed.

Contact Richard Barker <rbarker at maths.otago.ac.nz> for the mark &
recapture work, Harald Steen <harald.steen at stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
and David Fletcher < dfletcher at math.otago.ac.nz> about modelling,
Michael Roy < michael.roy at stonebow.otago.ac.nz > about genetics
studies and myself <henrik.moller at stonebow.otago.ac.nz > about
density dependence studies. We can be contacted by post at either
the Mathematics & Statistics Dept., or the Zoology Department,
University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand (fax 64-3-
4797584).

Please pass this on to colleagues or your students that may not
intercept this message form the email network.

Many Thanks,

Dr Henrik Moller.

--
Dr. Henrik Moller
Senior Lecturer
Zoology Department
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin
New Zealand
Ph: 64-3-479-7991
Fax: 64-3-479-7584