19.4.24

Research assistant grant (CSIC JAE-Intro Program) on High Nature Value Pastoral Systems


A new call of CSIC's JAE-Intro Program will bepublished tomorrow 20/4/2024. The Program offers 6-month contracts as research assistant (20 hours/week), aimed at initiating MSc or last-year BSc students in the design and development of research activities. It will be opened for one month, until 20/5/2024.

You can find all the information on the program at: https://sede.csic.gob.es/intro2024

The Spatial Ecology Group will offer a grant position (training program) based at the Doñana Biological Staiton headquarters in Sevilla, with the following title and focus:

Adaptive management of High Nature Value pastoral systems hosting wild and domestic ungulates facing climate change

The work will be developed in the framework of project RESILGRAZE, which aims at developing evidence-based, adaptive management strategies that optimize the balance between pastoral livestock farming, wildlife conservation, ecosystem services, and ecosystem resilience in Europe’s (Mediterranean- and temperate-climate) Atlantic ecosystems facing climate change. The project will develop knowledge and tools aimed at fostering the adaptive management of wild (red, fallow and/or roe deer) and domestic (cattle, horse) ungulates in two iconic Natural Protected Areas of Spain’s Mediterranean and Atlantic region: Doñana National Park (DNP) and Serra de Xistral (SX). Key ecosystem services targeted by the interventions include carbon storage, soil fertility, pasture production, water provision, prevention of forest fires – and, more generally, the conservation of biodiversity. 

The grantee will participate in the design, execution and analyses of field and remote-sensing surveys at both DNP and SX, including the acquisition of data on vegetation composition, plant production and consumption, and C and N stocks; the adquisition and analysis of animal movement and behaviour data obtained with GPS collars ang camera traps; the analysis of ungulaye diet, body condition and health based on DNA and biochemical analyses of fecal samples; and/or the anthropological and socio-economic analyses of the pastoral and nature-conservation systems, including the analysis of the relationship between sense of belonging and ecosystem conservation/services. Emphasis on a each of these different aspects, as well as between field, lab and desk work will be adjusted depending on the applicant’s background and interest.

The specific position (training plan) cannot be selected during the application procedure (see  art. 12.8 of the call). Instead, they will be selected by the successful candidates, follwoing the resolution of the selection process. Hence, they will be published in the near future, at: https://sede.csic.gob.es/intro2024