-----Original Message-----
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Grogan
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Graduate positions in terrestrial ecosystem ecology

Ph.D. and M.Sc. graduate positions in Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology

Paul Grogan, Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario,
Canada.

Our lab is focused on understanding how terrestrial ecosystems function and
why they are structured the way they are (http://post.queensu.ca/~groganp/).
 We investigate biogeochemical interactions between plants, herbivores, soil
microbes, and soils that significantly affect ecosystem functioning.  Right
now, we are interested in gaining a better understanding of the controls on
carbon and nutrient cycling and their interactions in arctic tundra,
temperate grassland and forest ecosystems, and have experiments and
collaborations across Canada as well as in Alaska and Scandinavia.  The
underlying rationale for our research is that an improved understanding of
biogeochemical interactions is essential to predicting the impacts of
perturbations such as changes in climate and land-use management, and
therefore to developing appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies. 
Here are just two of many questions that I would be interesting in
developing with new graduate students:

How do the differences between nitrogen and phosphorus biogeochemistry
influence our understanding of low arctic tundra ecosystems, and how they
will be affected by climate change? 

What is the relative importance of top-down (deer herbivory) and bottom-up
(water and nutrient availability) controls on primary production and plant
community composition in temperate grasslands? 

Applicants should e-mail me ([log in to unmask]) with a short CV and an
insightful paragraph outlining specifics of how your research interests and
experience would contribute to, and the kinds of questions you would like to
address.  We currently have funding for two graduate positions and will
begin reviewing applications on April 21st, 2011. 

Queen's is very highly rated within Canada as a medium-sized university that
balances innovative world class research with excellent undergraduate and
graduate education (http://www.queensu.ca/).  The Department of Biology
(http://www.queensu.ca/biology/index.html) and associated departments on
campus offer a wide range of faculty with interests and skills relevant to
our lab's research including the ecology of plant communities and vegetation
succession, nucleic acid analyses and metagenomics, epifluorescence
microscopy, soil bacterial tolerance to freeze-thaw, ecosystem trace gas
production, regional and landscape-level patterns of soil biogeochemistry,
remote sensing, and isotope analyses.  Queen's is located in the
particularly attractive and historical city of Kingston, which is centered
about 2 hours drive from Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa (within Eastern
Canada) and Syracuse, New York.