Postdoctoral researcher - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Introduction
Research in landscape ecology focuses on how populations or biodiversity respond to changes in the landscape caused by e.g. habitat loss and fragmentation. Techniques in remote sensing have been used rather extensively in research focusing on structural and functional diversity in plant communities. However, remote sensing techniques have rarely been utilised in landscape ecology focusing on mobile organisms which rely on multiple habitat types. Hence, whilst it is well-known that he diversity of butterflies, bumblebees and farmland birds benefit from increasing landscape heterogeneity, the role of increasing land-use intensity not equally well understood. This project aims at determining the relative roles of landscape structure and landscape-wide land-use intensity on biodiversity. The project builds on close collaboration between researchers in landscape ecology and remote sensing. We expect that current developments in remote sensing techniques will revolutionise research in landscape ecology, and our ambition is to contribute to this development and establish in internationally known platform in the research area.

Main tasks
We are searching for a post-doctoral researcher for a two-year employment in remote sensing and ecology. The employment is based on the two projects "Integrating indicators of land-use intensity in landscape ecology using remote sensing" (financed by the strategic research area BECC), and the project "Land sparing 2.0: using remote sensing to inform trade-offs and synergies between biodiversity protection and enhancing ecosystem services in agriculture" (financed by the Swedish research council FORMAS). The projects are carried out in collaboration between the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science (Lars Eklundh), and the Centre for Environment and Climate research (Johan Ekroos).

The project work includes development of remote sensing methodology for estimation of productivity in agricultural land, and linking this to biological diversity in nature conservation areas. Productivity is estimated using vegetation indices extracted from time series of data from the satellite Sentinel-2. Biological diversity is estimated from species data of different organisms (e.g. birds, butterflies and plants). The work includes satellite data management and processing, time-series analysis with the software TIMESAT, computation of vegetation indices, and summation of phenological indicators for selected agricultural areas. Data will be aggregated and analyzed statistically to investigate relationships with biological data in time and space. Hypotheses will be tested, and results presented orally and in writing. Publication of results will be done in recognized scientific journals.

Qualifications
We are searching for a person interested in cross-disciplinary research, particularly in implementation of remote sensing technology on questions regarding land use and its effect on biological diversity.

Fundamental requirements for the position:

• PhD in physical geography, biology, environmental science or similar topic.
• Documented knowledge in optical remote sensing, digital image analysis, GIS, statistics, and computer programming.
• Experience in written publication in international scientific literature.

Additional criteria:

• Documented knowledge in ecology / biology
• Experience of work with in-situ data as well as GIS and remote sensing data
• Relevant professional or research experience
• Driver’s license

The applicant is requested to enclose a letter in their application, specifying their suitability for the position according to the above mentioned requirements and criteria.