Postdoctoral position in Spatial Ecology in Barcelona on GLOBAL SPATIAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF STORM PETRELS – SEAGHOSTS (POST16312032025) IP. RAUL RAMOS

12 Mar 2025
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Universitat de Barcelona

Department

Dept BEECA, Faculty of Biology, Universitat de Barcelona

Research Field

Biological sciences

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)

Positions

Postdoc Positions

Country

Spain

Application Deadline

9 Apr 2025 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

37,5

Offer Starting Date

1 Oct 2025

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Other EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

SEAGHOSTS aims to build on limited knowledge of the SPATIAL AND TROPHIC ECOLOGY of the storm petrel species (Hydrobatidae and Oceanitidae) and their populations breeding in Europe. It aims to assess the major at-sea threats storm petrels face on their Mediterranean and NE Atlantic breeding grounds and on their suspected Southern Atlantic wintering grounds. These threats include climate change, renewable energy infrastructures, aquaculture, and contamination, including plastic exposure. 

 

Storm petrels are the smallest seabirds on Earth, and they are normally only accessible to researchers when at land in the colonies during breeding. They are thus particularly challenging to study outside this period when they are at sea and during which they migrate and usually moult their feathers. Due to their small size and elusive lifestyle, storm petrels appear often unnoticed in at-sea censuse, and tracking studies on them have not been possible until very recently. In general, most species of storm petrels are known to feed preferentially on ichthyoplankton and zooplankton during the breeding season, and often these preys are consumed along with a relevant proportion of microplastics. In this regard, storm petrels are good candidates for evaluating impacts at low and mid trophic levels of the pelagic food web, because they respond sooner to environmental changes than larger seabirds may do, even the last ones are often seen as the ideal sentinels. Overall, we still know little about their feeding grounds and foraging strategies in both breeding and non-breeding periods. This lack of knowledge in storm petrels’ ecology represents the current last frontier to a comprehensive understanding of the foraging ecology and spatio-temporal distributions of seabirds. Even though the interaction of storm petrels with offshore anthropogenic activities has been partially studied, the present proposal aims at gathering key knowledge on the global spatial ecology of these taxa and contributing to assess knowledge gaps on marine biodiversity and anthropogenic impacts on it along European seas.

 

SEAGHOSTS will combine available biologging, genetic and isotopic data with newly collected data over the project to fill important geographic gaps across Europe. This transnational project will combine ultraminiaturized tracking devices, habitat modelling, bulk and compound-specific stable isotope analysis, diet DNA metabarcoding analysis, geometric morphometrics, and microplastic determinations. This multidisciplinary methodology, combined with multi-colony and multi-species monitoring, will provide new essential knowledge on year-round, metapopulation distributions of storm petrels, and a review on how diverse human activities at sea may affect oceanic habitats of seabirds. Overall, this knowledge will help identifying priority conservation areas across international boundaries, i.e. Marine Protected Areas. 

 

A Spatial Ecology Data Science position is offered at Universitat de Barcelona. The Spatial Ecology Data Scientist will focus on the spatial and trophic ecology of the European-breeding storm petrels as well as their anthropogenic impacts on European seas. Concretely, the Spatial Ecology Data Science position will have the following responsibilities:

 

• Gathering, integrating, and managing datasets from diverse sources, including GPS and GLS tracking of seabirds, and environmental variables.

 

• Modelling of breeding and non-breeding habitat of storm petrels, projecting shifts under diverse IPCC scenarios.

 

• Inferring year-round at-sea activity of storm petrels from immersion data.

 

• Quantification, characterization, and spatial modelling of microplastic abundances at sea.

 

• Overlapping diverse anthropogenic impacts with storm petrel habitats.

 

• Develop engaging and informative data visualizations (e.g., charts, graphs, dashboards) to communicate results to a wide range of audiences.

 

• Collaborate closely with project partners, data providers, and stakeholders to ensure effective data sharing and coordination across teams.

 

• Provide training and support to project partners, students, and stakeholders on data handling, analysis, and interpretation techniques.

 

Perform additional tasks as directed by the Project Coordinator, supporting the overall objectives of the SEAGHOSTS project.

Where to apply

Website

https://www.ub.edu/eadministracio/IG.html

Requirements

Research Field

Biological sciences

Education Level

PhD or equivalent

Research Field

Environmental science

Education Level

PhD or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

• Expertise in advanced statistical techniques, particularly in spatial modeling.

   

• Knowledge of spatial ecology and experience in modelling species’ habitats.

 

• Strong foundation in statistics.

 

• Experience with statistical tools like R for ecological modelling and analysis.

 

• Proficiency in handling and integrating large datasets from diverse sources such as GPS/GLS tracking, and environmental databases.

 

• Familiarity handling spatial data and integrating tracking information with environmental variables.

 

• Understanding of climate change models and their integration with ecological data

 

• Ability to present findings through well-structured reports (including GitHub), scientific papers, and presentations.

 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for presenting complex data to diverse stakeholders, including non-experts.

 

• Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate with project partners, researchers, data holders, and stakeholders across various disciplines.

 

• Experience providing training and guidance on data analysis tools to students and colleagues.

   

• Proficiency in writing scientific articles, clear reports, and technical documentation

Specific Requirements

Excellent communication skills in English

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Internal Application form(s) needed
How to apllication to the offer.pdf
English
(269.9 KB - PDF)
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Sol·licitud _0.pdf
English
(218.24 KB - PDF)
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Additional Information
Benefits

A full-time work contract (37.5 hrs/week). 

Gross salary: 30.000 €

Eligibility criteria

• CV Alignment (up to 50 points)
• Motivational Letter (up to 20 points)
• Professional experience in data management (up to 20 points)
• Project-specific expertise (up to 10 points)

 

Minimum Score: 50

Selection process

The specific committee will agree upon an award proposal and draw up a prioritized shortlist of candidates who have achieved a minimum of 50 points or declare the call for applications null and void if none of the applicants reach the minimum score. 

 

The award proposal will be published in the UB's electronic office and must include the total scores of the candidates that have received a total of at least 50 points.

 

Application Process:

According to the specific requirements and selection criteria, the candidates are expected to provide at least the following documents:

 

•   Application form 

• Full CV
• Motivation letter

•   Document of absence of conflict of interest (DACI) in the case that the financing of the recruitment be with PRTR funds

Additional comments

Duration of the contract of employment: 12 months, renewable up to 31/03/2027. 

The candidate proposed for hiring must accept the job offer within 3 working days from the date of notification of the selection. 

Priority will be given to people with disabilities (Law 89/2015 of June 2, reserve of quota 2% in favour of people with disabilities in companies of 50 or more people).

Be aware that the starting date sets in this offer is an estimate date. The official starting date will depend on the bureaucratic time that will take the preparation of the labour contract and presentation of the necessary documents to be hired by the selected candidate.

For additional information regards this offer, please, contact Dr. Raül Ramos: ramos@ub.edu

 

Details of convocatoria: https://seu.ub.edu/ofertaPublicaCategoriaPublic/listPublicacionsAmbCategoria?categoria.id=671128  

Website for additional job details

https://www.biodiversa.eu/2024/04/15/seaghosts/

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Faculty of Biology, Universitat de Barcelona

Country

Spain

State/Province

Barcelona

City

Barcelona

Postal Code

08208

Geofield

Contact

City

Barcelona

Website

https://www.ub.edu

Street

Faculty of Biology, Universitat de Barcelona

Postal Code

08208

STATUS: EXPIRED

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