Dear colleagues and friends,
We are seeking for a highly motivated candidate for a 4-years PhD Contract (Formación Personal Investigador-FPI Grant Scheme) within the framework of the Spanish National Research project (Plan National):

“Autonomous and cabled underwater sensor networks applied to remote monitoring of biological indicators”
Pis’: J. del Rio (SARTI-UPC) and J. Aguzzi (ICM-CSIC)

The research activity will be based between Barcelona and Vilanova I la Gertru (Cataluña), by a candidate that must possess a good knowledge of written and spoken English and high academic records (i.e. Bachelor and MSc Degrees) in Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences or Marine Sciences. Candidates’ will be expected be familiar with ecology principles and possess baseline knowledge on Office Packages. Due to the engineering activities carried out within the project, will be very valuable if the candidate has some experience about marine instrumentation and data management, as well as, use and have a. Candidates will be expected to spend training periods abroad of few months.

Candidates will be evaluated through the preparation of Research Proposal (i.e. 5000 characters including spaces) based on contents of the Synopsis presetned below and using 5 selected publications (also listed below). Proposals should be submitted by no later than the 18th of June 2018, via mail to: joaquin.del.rio@upc.edu; jaguzzi@icmcsic.es

Interview (in person or via Skype) will start the 25th of June, 2018.

Please, forward this message to all those EU citizens that could be interested in such an activity.
All the best,
Jacopo Aguzzi and Joaquin del Rio

Project Synopsis
From the studies carried out with the objective of exploring biodiversity and monitoring the ecosystem functioning, a great variability is observed in the sampling of marine species. This variability is produced by the rhythmic movements of megafauna synchronously with the day-night, seasonal, inertial, and tidal cycles. Monitoring biodiversity and the environmental drivers controlling those rhythms at different spatiotemporal scales is of relevance in the context of increasing anthropogenic impact across the breadth of continental margins. To comply with the monitoring of biological indicators set by the European Community Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008), the Project proposes the development and the coupling of new fixed and mobile multi-parametric video-platforms at the OBSEA testing site (www.obsea.es), implementing at the same time methodologies for the spatiotemporal sampling of the composition of communities (i.e. richness) and relative abundance of species (i.e. evenness). In order to increase spatial coverage and allow for strategic and flexible changes in monitoring, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and benthic robots (Crawlers) will be used to enforce data collection in both spatial (near-area) and time-coordinated fashion via novel protocols for robots’
communication. Fluctuations in video-counted individuals will be used as an indicator of a population’s rhythms, and these will be related with the surrounding habitat conditioning (via a concomitant multiparametric data acquisition) in terms of cause-and-effect principles.

LIST of RELVANT PUBLICATIONS
Danovaro R., Aguzzi J., Fanelli E., Billet D. Gjerde K., Jamieson A., Ramirez-Llodra E, Smith C.R., Snelgrove P.V.R., Thomsen L., Van Dover C. 2017. A new international ecosystem-based strategy for the global deep ocean. Science 355: 452-454.

Aguzzi J., Doya C., Tecchio S., De Leo F.l., Azzurro E., Costa C., Sbragaglia V., Del Río J., Navarro J., Ruhl H.A., Company J.B, FavaliP., Purser A., Thomsen L., Catalán I.A. 2015. Coastal observatories for monitoring of fish behaviour and their responses to environmental changes. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 25: 463-483.

Aguzzi J., Company J.B., Costa C., Matabos M., Azzurro E., Mànuel A.,Menesatti P., Sardà F., Canals M., Delory E., Cline D., Favali P., Juniper S.K., Furushima Y., Fujiwara Y., Chiesa J.J., Marotta L., Priede I.M. 2012. Challenges to assessment of benthic populations and biodiversity as a result of rhythmic behaviour: video solutions from cabled observatories. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review (OMBAR) 50: 235-286

Aguzzi J., Sbragaglia V., Santamaría G., Del Río J., Sardà F., Nogueras M., Manuel A. 2013. Daily activity rhythms in temperate coastal fishes: insights from cabled observatory video monitoring.
Marine Ecology Progress Series 486: 223-236

Aguzzi J., Manuél A., Condal F., Guillén J., Nogueras M., Del Río J., Costa C., Menesatti P., Puig P., Sardà F., Toma D., Palanques A. 2011.
The new SEAfloor OBservatory (OBSEA) for remote and long-term coastal ecosystem monitoring. Sensors-Basel 11: 5850-5872

 

Via Dr Laura Sordo

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