The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation is Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world.
CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship conducts research that seeks solutions to the challenges posed by climate change. You will contribute to this overall multi-disciplinary research effort by researching, developing and testing novel approaches to planning landscapes to promote persistence of biodiversity under climate change. In contrast to most other work worldwide in this field, these new approaches will be based on top-down modelling of potential climate-change impacts on collective (community-level) attributes of biodiversity, rather than on individual species.
The position will be based at Black Mountain in Canberra, working under the supervision of Dr Simon Ferrier, and will have access to advanced software programming and modelling support through a newly-established Spatial Modeller / Programmer position.
The Postdoctoral Fellow will:
Research and develop approaches to extending existing techniques for modelling potential impacts of climate change on community composition (including Dr Ferrier’s generalised dissimilarity modelling technique) to better enable: i) consideration of effects of spatial configuration of habitat (e.g. connectivity) on the realisation of potential shifts in community composition; ii) incorporation of indirect effects of climate change (through changed ecological processes) on community composition; iii) integration with modelling of functional attributes; and iv) accommodation of high levels of uncertainty in all modelling components.
Work with other team members to integrate the above approaches into decision-support software for evaluating alternative spatially-explicit configurations of land use and management, in terms of potential implications for biodiversity persistence under different climate-change scenarios.
Collaborate with other team members, and planning staff from external agencies, in trialling the application of these approaches to selected case studies at various scales.
Applicants must address the selection criteria. Applicants that do not address the selection criteria will not be considered. To assist you prepare your application please read the information available at"Guidelines for Applicants"
Pre-Requisite
The successful appointee must have completed the requirements for a PhD. Owing to the terms of the fellowship, candidates must not have more than 3 years relevant Post-Doctoral Experience.
Essential:
PhD, or will shortly satisfy the requirements for a PhD, in ecology, conservation biology or a related discipline.
Demonstrated experience in the application of quantitative spatial analysis and/or modelling techniques to complex problems in ecology, conservation planning or natural resource management.
Evidence of excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication skills.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a research team.
An understanding of EEO and OHS&E principles.
Strong support from knowledgeable referees.
Desirable:
Demonstrated skills in computer programming.
Demonstrated experience in biodiversity conservation planning and/or assessment of potential climate-change impacts on biodiversity.
Ability to commence within 6 months of acceptance of Fellowship.
