Human impact on the global patterns of marine mammal distribution and abundance

This 3-year, fully funded, PhD project, will quantify the impact of historical human activities on the global patterns of diversity and abundance of marine mammal species.
It will be based at the Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionelle et Evolutive, Montpellier, France, supervised by Ana Rodrigues.
Application deadline: 31 October.

Candidate profile
The successful candidate will possess:
- A solid academic background in ecology.
- A rigorous and detail-oriented approach to work with an aptitude for exploring and analysing historical datasets.
- Strong analytical skills, including knowledge or capacity to learn GIS and programming skills (for example in R) for the manipulation and analyses of large spatial datasets.
- Good interpersonal skills needed for working as part of a large team, and for coordinating multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional meetings involving scientists and stakeholders.
- Good command of the English language.

This PhD is a part of the ANR-funded MORSE project: “Management of Ocean Resources under Shifting Expectations - bringing the historical perspective into marine mammal conservation”. The MORSE project is a partnership between the Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionelle et Evolutive (CEFE CNRS UMR5175; www.cefe.cnrs.fr), the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (David Kaplan, IRD UMR212, www.umr-eme.org/), and the laboratory Ecologie des systèmes marins côtiers (Fabien Leprieur, ECOSYM CNRS UMR5119, http://www.ecosym.univ-montp2.fr), with the collaboration of a network of international partners.
The student will be supervised by Ana Rodrigues
(http://www.cefe.cnrs.fr/dynamique-des-paysages-et-de-la-biodiversite/ana-rodrigues),
based at the CEFE, and affiliated with the SIBAGHE Doctoral School,
Université Montpellier 2 (http://www.sibaghe.univ-montp2.fr).

Application procedure
Please send a detailed CV, course grades from most recent academic work, letter of motivation, and name and contacts (email and phone number) of two or more researchers capable of assessing your competence for this position via email to ana.rodrigues@cefe.cnrs.fr by the 31 October 2011.