Postdoctoral Research Associate

Performance Period: 13 months, renewable up to 4 years conditional on funding, Adjunct Research Faculty Status considered after Year 1 

Application Deadline: Present until closed. 

Position Summary: Utah State University (USU), Dept. of Watershed Sciences & USGS Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (GCMRC) seek a Postdoctoral Research Associate with interests in decision analysis, ecological modeling, and native fish management. Incumbent will develop value-of-information (VOI) analyses related to supplementation of endangered delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) in the Sacramento River-San Joaquin River Delta of California. The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), in collaboration and consultation with other federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, manages water resources and related activities as part of the Central Valley Project (CVP), California, for the purposes of conveyance, storage, water quality, and environmental benefits. Decision making related to water-resource management is difficult and controversial because water needs for human consumption, irrigation for agriculture, recreation, and the environment are often far greater than the available water supply. As such, there is a need for a robust framework to guide decision making and balance water-resource allocation between human and environmental needs, including those of Endangered Species-Act listed fishes such as delta smelt. 

Despite multiple conservation actions, including flow actions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (Delta), delta smelt was nearly extirpated by 2021. Modest supplementation (experimental release of hatchery produced fish) has prevented the disappearance of the species in its native habitat. The need for supplementation has led to the development of supplementation strategies meant to conserve the species; however, there is considerable uncertainty around factors driving post-release 2 survival, reproductive rates, and numbers of hatchery-produced fish that need to be released to contribute to positive population growth of delta smelt. Reclamation and other resource managers have proposed to incorporate Structure Decision Making (SDM) into the Long Term Operations, adaptive management plan, including decision making related to delta smelt supplementation in the Delta, beginning in water year 2025. In addition, we will use VOI tools to provide a formal, quantitative assessment of how much management outcomes can be improved if uncertainty related to delta smelt supplementation is reduced. The incumbent will work closely with a team of quantitative ecologists and decision analysts from USU and the USGS Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit, USGS GCMRC, USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center at the Patuxent Research Refuge, Bureau of Reclamation Bay-Delta Office, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Application: Preliminary applicants should email to BOTH Dr. Phaedra Budy, phaedra.budy@usu.edu & Dr. Brian Healy bhealy@usgs.gov): (1) a 1 page letter describing your background and interests – the letter should address specifically how the applicant meets both the requirements and the desired abilities, (2) curriculum vitae, and (3) the names and contact information for 3 potential references. Please include “SDM post doc” in the subject line. For further information, contact either Dr.’s Budy or Healy