Research Associate/Assistant in Salmon Ecology and Recovery

Pacific salmon populations are a vital resource for freshwater and marine ecosystems, indigenous cultures, and recreational and commercial fisheries. Many threatened and endangered populations are highly vulnerable to climate change, especially due to lower marine survival in a warmer ocean. Lack of information about the mechanisms depressing survival limits our ability to identify management actions that will enhance population resilience.

The Northwest Fisheries Science Center Salmon Marine Survival project aims to improve our understanding of the marine life stage of endangered salmon populations, with the goal of identifying management interventions that can help maintain and recover threatened populations. The project uses a suite of tools and approaches including single-species models, multi-species models of intermediate complexity, and end-to-end ecosystem models to evaluate how climate change, harvest, and predator-prey interactions affect the survival of juvenile and adult salmon in their marine stage. Results from this project will be used in Life Cycle Models of Columbia River salmon, among other applications.

We invite applications for a full-time Research Associate (post-doctoral) or Research Assistant (post-masters) appointment to be held at the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University. The researcher will focus on developing models to assess drivers of salmon marine survival. The researcher will have access to a number of extensive NOAA datasets on salmon prey, competitor, and predator species in the Northern California Current, as well as salmon survival estimates from coded wire tag recoveries and pit tag detections. The researcher will be based at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, but will be co-supervised by research scientists from the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center. We are also open to the possibility of working remotely.

Applicants must have completed all the requirements for their degree program (PhD or Masters) in fisheries, wildlife, ecology, or closely related field. Applicants should have a strong quantitative background with experience or interest in methods such as multi-species modeling, structural equation models, Bayesian methods, or spatial distribution models. Applicants with a demonstrated strong general quantitative background and interest in learning the theory and application of these methods will also be considered. Excellent command of the English language and written and verbal communication skills are absolutely required.

Periodic travel to meet with collaborators will be required, and we anticipate opportunities to participate in fieldwork including long-term monitoring surveys along the coast of Washington and Oregon to collect data on juvenile salmon and their prey.