IFREMER is seeking a highly motivated candidate for a postdoctoral fellowship (18 months) for the development of indicators for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).
The MSFD aims at achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) across Europe’s marine environments by 2020. It is structured into eleven descriptors. In 2010 the European Commission published a set of detailed criteria and indicators to help Member States determine what each descriptor means in practice and how they could be measured; a revision is currently underway. For monitoring purposes, the Biodiversity (D1) and Food web (D4) descriptors were divided into species groups (Fish and Cephalopods, Turtles, …), with several species per group. This nested structure means integration at different levels is necessary.
Some of the indicators listed in the implementation document require refinement to become fully operational. This is the case for indicators of Biodiversity (D1) and Food webs (D4):“Species distributional range and, where relevant, pattern » (D1C1) and « Species composition and their relative abundance (i.e. diversity indices) » (D4C3). The main task of the candidate will be to investigate and develop new indicators for these two criteria for the Fish and Cephalopds group. In addition, the candidate will test approaches for integrating several indicators.
The selected candidate will compile and analyze various data setsto develop and validate the new approaches. Therefore the candidates must
– hold a PhD in quantitative ecology or in arelevant related field
– havestrong skills in data analysis and R programming language
– be familiar with spatial analyses and/or geostatistics
– have a track record in publishing in peer-reviewed journals
– have experience in research collaborations
The position will be based at the Ifremer Nantes at the research unit ecology and models for fisheries science.
Starting date: as soon as possible
Funding for this position is available for 18 months (not renewable)
Applicants should submit a curriculum vitae, the names and contact information for 3 referees and a brief statement of research interests and skills as a single pdf document to Dr. AnikBrind’Amour(Anik.Brindamour@ifremer.fr)
Deadline: opened until filled