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Matter: Clues to Africa’s Mysterious Past Found in Ancient Skeletons

An analysis of DNA recovered from fossils thousands of years old hints at enormous migrations that shaped the continent.

From the NYTimes News-2017-9-21:14:6:4

UK scientists edit DNA of human embryos

Understanding the first moments of life could lead to better IVF and explain why women miscarry.

From the BBC News-2017-9-21:14:6:3

Ancient DNA sheds light on African history

DNA from ancient remains is used to reconstruct thousands of years of population history in Africa.

From the BBC News-2017-9-21:14:6:2

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Sep 21 08:00

Recruitment of a Lineage-Specific Virulence Regulatory Pathway Promotes Intracellular Infection by a Plant Pathogen Experimentally Evolved into a Legume Symbiont - Delphine Capela et al. (MBE)

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The most recent EvolDir posting is shown here ...

The Department of Biosciences at the University of Helsinki invites
applications for 5 post doc positions to utilize long-term ecological
data to understand impacts of global change

The post doc positions are part of the Research Centre for Ecological
Change and are funded by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation for
1.1.2018-31.12.2020. PIs of the Centre are prof. Anna-Liisa Laine,
prof. Otso Ovaskainen, prof. Tomas Roslin, assist. prof. Jarno
Vanhatalo and dr Marjo Saastamoinen. The starting date is 1.1.2018, but
a later starting date can be negotiated.
The overreaching aim of the Centre is to generate a coordinated
analysis of long-term ecological data to understand impacts of global
change. To unravel how populations and interactions between species in
nature are responding to ongoing environmental change, the project
takes advantage of the unique long-term datasets collected in Finland.
The centre also develops state-of-the-art methodology for analysing
long-term spatially structured data sets within a joint species
distribution modeling framework. For more information on the Centre,
please visit
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/research-centre-for-ecologica
l-change

The salary of the successful candidate will be based on level 5 - 6 of
the demands level chart for teaching and research personnel in the
salary system of Finnish universities. In addition, the appointee will
be paid a salary component based on personal performance. The starting
salary will be ca. 3300 - 3800 euros/month, depending on the
appointee's qualifications and experience.

The deadline for submitting the application is 7 October 2017.

A link to the University of Helsinki Recruitment System where
applications can be submitted will be available after mid September at:
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/research-centre-for-ecologica
l-change

3 POST DOC POSTITIONS IN POPULATION/COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

We are seeking three post docs to analyse extensive ecological
datasets. The successful candidates will take part in developing the
specific research questions, and in linking spatial and temporal data
on the abundance and distribution of species and on community
composition to data on habitat structure, population harvesting,
fragmentation, land use and/or weather. Examples of questions of
interest include the role of environmental change on biodiversity in
different habitats, on the spread of pests, disease, and invasive
species, on the threat status of endangered species, and on potential
mismatches in phenology among interacting species. The data and
research questions concern both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The
focus of the specific research questions can be modified in accordance
with the background and interests of the candidate.
The successful applicant should have completed a PhD in ecology or a
related field, and have a strong background in statistics, spatial
statistics, and/or GIS. We seek candidates with excellent written and
verbal communication skills, and the ability to conceive, execute and
complete research projects, and to think independently and creatively.
The post docs will work as a part of a team at the Centre but also with
researchers from other environmental institutes. Overall, excellent
social skills are required for extensive collaborations.
For more information, contact prof. Anna-Liisa Laine, prof. Tomas
Roslin and/or Dr. Marjo Saastamoinen by email:
anna-liisa.laine@helsinki.fi, tomas.roslin@helsinki.fi,
marjo.saastamoinen@helsinki.fi

References

Jousimo, J, Tack, AJM, Ovaskainen, O., Mononen, T., Susi, H.,
Tollenaere, C. & Laine, A.-L. 2014. Ecological and evolutionary effects
of fragmentation on infectious disease dynamics. Science, 344:
1289-1293.

Saastamoinen, M., Ikonen, S., Wong, S.W., Lehtonen, R. & Hanski, I.
2013. Plastic larval development in a butterfly has complex
environmental and genetic causes and consequences for population
dynamics. Journal of Animal Ecology 82: 529-539.

Schmidt, N., Mosbacher, J., Nielsen, P., Rasmussen, C., Hoye, T., &
Roslin, T. 2016. An ecological function in crisis? - the temporal
overlap between plant flowering and pollinator function shrinks as the
Arctic warms. Ecography 39: 1250-1252. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.02261.

2 POST DOC POSTITIONS IN STATISTICAL ECOLOGY

The post docs take part in the development of statistical methods for
analyzing long-term ecological data and in statistical analyzes within
the Research Centre for Ecological Change.

The methodological work focus on development of Hierarchical Modelling
of Species Communities (HMSC) and hierarchical multivariate Gaussian
processes. HMSC is a joint species distribution modelling framework
that can be used for the statistical analysis of data on species
occurrence, environmental covariates, functional traits and
phylogenetic relationships. HMSC can be applied to hierarchical,
spatial and temporal study designs, and it applies to many kinds of
response data (presence/absence, counts, etc.). Gaussian processes are
flexible and versatile modeling approach that are emerging to
statistical ecology as tools for species distribution and population
dynamics modeling. Gaussian processes are used to model spatial and
spatiotemporal heterogeneity in data and describe species responses to
their environment in nonparametric manner.

For recent methodological publications, see the reference list at the
end. For the R and MATLAB implementations of HMSC, see the project's
www-page
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/metapopulation-research-centr
e/hmsc

A successful post doc candidate will have experience in the development
and application of Bayesian methods for computationally challenging
problems. In particular, prior experience in multivariate generalized
linear mixed models, factor models and/or Gaussian processes is highly
valued. A successful candidate will also have experience in scientific
computing. Prior experience in ecology is not necessary, but is counted
as an advantage. The exact direction to which the post doc will develop
HMSC and Gaussian process models can be agreed upon based on the
experience and interests of the candidate.

For more information, contact prof. Otso Ovaskainen and/or assistant
prof. Jarno Vanhatalo by email: otso.ovaskainen@helsinki.fi,
jarno.vanhatalo@helsinki.fi

References

Ovaskainen, O., Tikhonov, G., Norberg, A., Blanchet, F. G., Duan, L.,
Dunson, D., Roslin, T. and Abrego, N. 2017a. How to make more out of
community data? A conceptual framework and its implementation as models
and software. Ecology Letters 20, 561-576
Ovaskainen, O., Tikhonov, G., Dunson, D., Grotan, V., Engen, S.,
Saether, B.-E. and Abrego, N. 2017b. How are species interactions
structured in species rich communities? A new method for analysing
time-series data. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological
Sciences 284, 20170768.
Vanhatalo, J., Hosack, G. R. and Sweatman, H. (2017). Spatio-temporal
modelling of crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks on the Great Barrier
Reef to inform control strategies. Journal of Applied Ecology,
54:188-197.
Hartmann, M., Hosack, G. R., Hillary, R. M. and Vanhatalo, J. (2017).
Gaussian process framework for temporal dependence and discrepancy
functions in Ricker-type population growth models. Annals of Applied
Statistics, in press: http://imstat.org/aoas/next_issue.html

Professor Anna-Liisa Laine
Department of Biosciences
PO Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1)
FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
tel. +358 50 4484430
allaine.it.helsinki.fi
twitter: @annaliisalaine

"Laine, Anna-Liisa" <anna-liisa.laine@helsinki.fi>

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The most recent listing of people and e-mail addresses is here.

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