Two avian ecology graduate assistantships (MS/PhD)

We are seeking two motivated graduate students (1 MS, 1 PhD) in the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment at Auburn University to spearhead a project focused on understanding the impacts of land management on breeding birds. These positions are fully funded and will be supervised by Dr. Jonathon Valente (https://www.JonathonValente.com/) and Dr. Christopher Lepczyk (http://cfwe.auburn.edu/profile/christopher-lepczyk/). The projects will involve a substantial field component, and successful candidates will have experience conducting avian point counts, supervising personnel, interacting with landowners, and be comfortable working in remote settings. Candidates should also have a strong interest in population modeling and experience with statistical tools and techniques will be valuable. The overall goal of the research project will revolve around understanding how breeding birds have responded to historical management activities on state-owned lands and predicting future responses of avian communities. However, selected students will be encouraged to develop their own research questions within the scope of this project, which could revolve around source-sink dynamics, habitat selection, predictive modeling, species distribution modeling, fragmentation, management, integrated population modeling, and methodological development. 

This research is being conducted as part of a larger multi-taxa effort to understand how management activities impact biodiversity. Selected students will have the opportunity to collaborate with a large team of AU faculty and graduate students, and biologists from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The project will involve field-based sampling in 6 ecoregions (Interior Low Plateau, Southwestern Appalachians, Ridge and Valey, Piedmont, Southeastern Plains, and Southern Coastal Plain) throughout Alabama, the most biodiverse U.S. state east of the Mississippi River. 

The position start dates are flexible but will ideally begin either the Fall semester of 2023 (August 16^th) or the Spring semester of 2024 (January 10^th). Prospective candidates should be highly motivated, interested in developing field- and computer-based skills, and have a strong background in one or more of the following areas: ecology, biology, zoology, wildlife, population modeling, species distribution modeling, or a related field.