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Outreach Notice
Ecologist GS-0408/07-09
Salary range $36,822--$58,557

The USDA Forest Service will soon be advertising and accepting applicants for a permanent, full-time, ecologist position. This is a pre-announcement to determine interest in this position, your response will not be considered a commitment nor an application.

Location: USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station Research Work Unit NRS-6, Climate, Fire, and Carbon Cycle Sciences. Houghton, Michigan, USA.

The Lab is located on the campus of Michigan Technological University- adjacent to the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science.

Visit: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/units/ho/ for information on the Unit.
http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/ for information on the Northern Research Station
http://www.cityofhoughton.com/ for information about Houghton, Michigan

Job description: The incumbent will provide technical support for Unit research with an emphasis in the area of soil ecology and ecosystem processes. Support will include assistance with laboratory, mesocosm, rhizotron and field studies. Our unit’s primary emphasis is on understanding, mitigating and adapting to global change. Studies involve a diverse array of topics, including research on interactions of belowground processes with invasive soil organisms, changing atmospheric chemistry, and changing climate. The incumbent would support research on the processes that control the storage and turnover of carbon in forest soils as well as the feedbacks between soil microbial (bacterial and fungal) community structure/function and environmental change agents.

Applicants should have strong laboratory and field experience and skills, and an interest in working both indoors and outdoors. She or he should be capable, with minimal training, of performing:, soil biological, physical and chemical sampling; lab analyses; data management; and statistical analysis. Field sampling would include a broad array of activities such as basic ecosystem aboveground measurements, soil respiration studies, soil sampling, minirhizotron image capture, macroinvertebrate sampling, soil moisture sampling using TDR, soil water sampling using lysimeters, and datalogger management. Activities would include sample collection and prep as well as a variety of assays. Laboratory activities include but are not limited to DNA-based identification methods such as DNA extraction, PCR, gel electrophoresis, RFLP, TRFLP and sequencing; sterile culture techniques; identification of soil macroinvertebrates; soil particle size and root system image analysis; PLFA analysis; C/N analysis preparation; and gas chromatography.

A major responsibility of the incumbent would be the day-to-day maintenance of our new Rhizotron and Mesocosm facilities. The Rhizotron is a walk-in tunnel with 24 vertical windows into the soil in which observation, monitoring, and manipulative experiments take place. The Mesocosm is a facility with large instrumented containers used in controlled experiments designed to understand ecosystem response to changes such as warming or invasive soil organisms. The incumbent would be responsible for managing the facility environmental conditions, data collection and management, sample processing, and coordination of space use in the context of these studies.

The ability to manage and reduce large quantities of environmental and biological data is essential to the successful fulfillment of duties. In addition, the incumbent should have a good foundation in statistical analysis methods. The successful candidate will have strong organizational and communication (both written and oral) skills, have the ability to take directions, work as part of a team, be able to work with minimal supervision, and have excellent interpersonal skills. Motivated candidates will have opportunities to present and publish research results under the supervision of a senior scientist.

For more information, or to express interest in the position, contact:
Erik Lilleskov, Research Ecologist, USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station 410 MacInnes Drive Houghton, MI 49931
ph.: 906-482-6303 X22; email: elilleskov@fs.fed.us