Post Doc Res Assoc - Botany/Shoemaker Lab

The University of Wyoming is delighted to receive your interest in our vacant position!  We strive to connect with qualified and uniquely talented individuals to join our campus community.  We would love to hear how your experiences translate to this position, the University’s Mission, Vision, and Values, and encourage you to submit an application today!

JOB TITLE:                       

Post Doctoral Research Associate - Botany/Shoemaker Lab

JOB PURPOSE:

The Shoemaker Lab (https://laurenshoemaker.weebly.com/) in the Botany Department and Program in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Wyoming is seeking applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in quantitative community ecology. Our lab’s research broadly focuses on integrating theory and experiments to understand the processes that structure ecological communities under current conditions and under future global change. The advertised position will synthesize a global grassland database to create a trait-based framework for predicting patterns of community synchrony across environmental gradients and top-down and bottom-up ecosystem controls. The position is 100% research with a flexible start date between January and August 2025.

PROJECT OVERVIEW: Synchrony, defined as correlated temporal fluctuations, such as in species' abundances, is a ubiquitous phenomenon across ecological levels of organization, and is driven by both biotic factors and abiotic environmental drivers. At the population level, correlations in temporal abundance fluctuations across distinct locations (i.e., population synchrony) increase species' extinction risk. In communities, correlated fluctuations among species in a given location (i.e., community synchrony) decreases ecosystem stability. To date, research has largely emphasized the role of environmental variation in shaping patterns of synchrony. However, species traits and their interactive effects with environmental conditions likely play major roles in regulating synchrony, as traits mediate species interactions and responses to environmental change. By integrating multi-site time series data from a global distributed experiment (the Nutrient Network) with novel trait collection, existing trait databases, and methodological development, we aim to develop and empirically test frameworks for linking functional traits to synchrony across scales of ecological organization under both natural conditions and experimental treatments that alter the strength of top-down and bottom-up ecosystem controls. In Objective 1 we will synthesize multiple trait databases and collect new data on traits hypothesized to mechanistically affect synchrony, characterizing how trait composition responds to changing top-down and bottom-up controls and testing how bud bank, root, and seed traits relate to established plant form and function frameworks. In Objective 2 we will link species traits to spatial synchrony of populations, quantifying how multidimensional trait variation and trait-by-environment interactions result in interspecific differences in synchrony. In Objective 3 we will assess how community weighted mean traits and overall functional diversity determine patterns of community synchrony.

POSITION DESCRIPTION: The postdoctoral research associate will lead analyses linking trait based approaches to patterns of community synchrony. The successful candidate will be expected to conduct cross-site analyses linking temporal patterns in community synchrony across Nutrient Network sites to functional traits, trait diversity, and trait-by-environment interactions. The advertised position is part of a recently funded collaboration between the Shoemaker lab, Magda Garbowski’s Rangeland Ecology and Restoration Lab (https://magda-garbowski.weebly.com/) at New Mexico State University, and Jonathan Walter’s lab (https://sites.google.com/site/jwalterecology/home) at the University of California, Davis. The postdoc will collaborate on multiple components of the project, will work closely with all team members, and will additionally collaborate in developing a distributed seminar focused on linking ecological theory to data for the Nutrient Network. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The University of Wyoming has strong research programs in ecology and evolutionary biology across multiple departments, including Botany, Zoology and Physiology, Ecosystem Science and Management, Plant Sciences, and the Program in Ecology. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:  

• Develop and conduct research on trait-based patterns of community synchrony.
• Provide analytical, technical, and research support to the Shoema