Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor Gretchen Daily

The Stanford Natural Capital Project (NatCap) seeks a creative individual for a 2-year postdoc working on habitat-fisheries models and their application.
 
The postdoctoral scholar will develop a habitat-fisheries model for application in Belize, Florida, and the US Virgin Islands and then generalize it for application to other locations. This position is part of a research project funded through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation (CoPe). The project is entitled: “Large-scale CoPe: Reducing Climate Risks with Equitable Nature-based Solutions: Engaging Communities on Reef-Lined Coasts.” CoPe supports multi-institutional coastal research hubs that study the interactions between natural, human-built, and social systems in coastal populated environments. In addition to Stanford, the research team includes experts from University of South Florida (CoPe hub lead), Boston University, University of Miami, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Virgin Islands, and East Carolina University. The project also includes partners from World Wildlife Fund, Fragments of Hope Ltd., and Black in Marine Science.
 
The Stanford Natural Capital Project is co-leading the modeling and mapping of numerous benefits provided by mangroves and coral reefs, including fisheries, in partnership with Boston University. In collaboration with other research teams from partner institutions, the postdoc will be responsible for developing a new fisheries model that will allow for the exploration of how restoration and protection of corals and mangroves, and association with other habitats like seagrass, may affect the distribution and abundance of target species, catch and effort, and benefits to local communities (e.g., revenue, food security, cultural practices). The fisheries modeling approach will help inform the design and implementation of equitable nature-based solutions for each of the three geographies and should also be transferable to other geographies.
 
With this position there will be opportunities to work with highly interdisciplinary teams and to contribute to writing grant proposals, mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, writing research papers, teaching, and presenting project research to various audiences that support the postdoc’s professional development. In addition, the postdoc may be involved in co-development and delivery of participatory workshops with community partners in project sites and other research projects that emerge from the community engaged research activities of the Hub.
 
The successful applicant must have experience in spatially explicit, quantitative modeling; understanding of fishers’ behaviors and knowledge of tropical fisheries science in the Caribbean context is preferred. Familiarity with fish-habitat association models, mapping and estimating fishing effort across gear type is desired. A good knowledge of population dynamics and previous experience of model fitting to real data is essential, as well as proficiency with R and/or Python. Given that most tropical fisheries operate under limited data environments, being resourceful and creative will be key to designing and applying a transferable habitat-based fisheries model. Applicants must be passionate about creating simple, elegant, scientifically robust models for decision-making purposes. The new model will ultimately be part of InVEST, the Natural Capital Project’s suite of software tools used to map and value the goods and services from nature that sustain and fulfill human life.
 
The position is located at Stanford University. Extensive interaction with interdisciplinary teams and some travel - particularly to Florida, Belize, and US Virgin Islands - are required.
 
The position is for two years (with the second year contingent on adequate progress in the first). The postdoctoral scholar will be co-advised by Dr. Gretchen Daily and Dr. Anne Guerry, with significant connections to other CoPe team members, including Dr. Jade Delevaux of Seascape Solutions. The expected base pay for this position is the Stanford University required minimum for all postdoctoral scholars appointed through the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. The FY23 minimum is $68,238, with an increase to $71,650 in September.