Announcement - PhD candidate wanted
We are seeking a PhD candidate to work on analysing data on the Barents Sea food web, with
cod as the main target species. When one or more well-suited candidates have been found,
money to finance the position will be sought from both Norwegian and British sources. The
research questions will be developed jointly by the supervisors and the PhD candidate.
Newly available long-term historical data series from the UK will be linked to similar data
from other (mainly Norwegian and Russian) sources. The data are partly from scientific
cruises, partly based on commercial catches. The work will be conducted in collaboration
with and under supervision of British and Norwegian and fisheries scientists and will be
linked to other ongoing projects. A main area of interest is spatiotemporal patterns of
variability in cod diet; effects of climate and consequences for food web dynamics. The main
approach will be statistical modelling; spatial as well as interannual and seasonal variability is
of interest.
The sought candidate will have, or expect to obtain within the next few months, a MSc or
similar in biology and a strong interest for quantitative, statistical, model-oriented methods. A
background in marine/fisheries ecology/ biology is a strength, but is not required.
The main place of work will be the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES
http://www.cees.uio.no/) at the University of Oslo, Norway. CEES was awarded national
Centre of Excellence status by the Research Council of Norway in October 2007, the only one
of its kind focusing on ecology and evolution. Very recently CEES also became a Nordic
Nordic Centre of Excellence on Climate Change Effects on Marine Ecosystems and Resource
Economics. CEES consist of over 130 members including a core group of 20 permanent
academic staff, around 40 post docs/researchers and around 35 PhD’s, representing around 20
nationalities. The Centre is internationally recognized and coordinates several networks and
training programmes within ecology and evolution.
Some of the work will be undertaken at the other main collaborator, the Centre for
Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (CEFAS, http://www.cefas.co.uk/) in
Lowestoft, England. CEFAS is the UK's largest and most diverse applied marine science
centre. CEFAS help to shape and implement policy through internationally renowned science
and collaborative relationships that span the EU, UK government, non-governmental
organisations, research centres and industry. CEFAS collect, manage and interpret
environmental, biodiversity and fisheries data.