Employment & Opportunities

Postdoctoral Fellow - Marine Food Webs Working Group of the Hakai Coastal Initiative, University of British Columbia

Applications are invited to a postdoctoral position (PDF) in the Marine Food Webs Working Group of the Hakai Coastal Initiative, University of British Columbia.

We are looking for an outstanding PDF candidate to conduct research on zooplankton biodiversity in the Salish Sea, northeast Pacific, using barcoding and metabarcoding approaches. The Hakai Institute oceanographic program conducts weekly to biweekly sampling of eDNA (five depths) and zooplankton communities at station QU39 in the northern Salish Sea from their Quadra Island Research station. This sampling has occurred as a time series since November 2014, and is ongoing. Parallel taxonomic analysis of zooplankton samples (microscopy) and eDNA samples (CO1) has been completed for 2015 / 2016 samples, and a zooplankton barcode library is in development using CO1 and 18s sequencing. The PDF candidate would work on the existing datasets, while further building the datasets from the existing sample bank. The first order research questions that the successful applicant will tackle include:

• How well does eDNA capture zooplankton diversity in comparison to net sampling?
• How does zooplankton diversity distribute through the water column?

This research will lay the foundation for analysis of the full QU39 time series, and investigation of seasonal diversity dynamics and interannual change in response to environmental drivers. The research is also expected to contribute to optimization of the sampling approach for the long term observing system.

The successful applicant would be expected to be fully involved in the Hakai zooplankton barcoding initiative, contributing to lab and field work on Quadra Island, and working on species taxonomies for groups where we have identified taxonomic conflicts or variability that indicates cryptic diversity (e.g., Metridia species complex, Limacina helicina, Chaetognath species complex, Themisto pacifica, Pseudocalanus species complex).

This research will contribute to the Hakai Coastal Initiative Marine Food Webs Working Group which has the overarching objective to advance knowledge of lower trophic level diversity and interactions. The successful applicant will join a team of researchers currently working on viruses, prokaryotes, and protists.

Ideal qualifications:

• A PhD (completed by the time of appointment) biological oceanography, microbial ecology, molecular biology or equivalent;
• Experience in molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics;
• Demonstrated R and/or Matlab computing skills, use of scripting languages (e.g., Python), or working in a Unix environment will be advantageous;
• Field and laboratory experience;
• Ability to both work independently and operate within a large multidisciplinary team.

Click here for more information and application instructions.