Modelling honeybee colony resilience from field data – a 2-year postdoc position
Working places: Unité Mixte de Recherche EGCE – Evolution, Génomes, Comportement et Écologie – Gif-sur-Yvette – France (IRD, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Saclay; www.egce.cnrs-gif.fr), and fieldwork in several French study sites.
Job description: We open a 2-year postdoc position related to the ongoing H2020 BeeConnected project (details here). The postdoc main objective is to study the resilience of honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera) along gradients in climate and landscape complexity. To reach that objective, the postdoc will benefit from a large and original dataset of honey bee colony dynamics collected through an automatic standardized monitoring over multiple European countries. The postdoc will explore spatio-temporal trends in the in-hive behaviour of honey bee colonies in order (i) to assess the effects of stress events (e.g. swarming, food shortage, queen failure) on the colony dynamic, (ii) to analyse the colony ability to recover from stress events (exploring potential climate×landscape dependent effects) and (iii) to define endpoints in the colony resilience.
Targeted profile: The postdoc requires a strong technical expertise in bioinformatics for scientific data analysis with experience in R and/or Python and good modelling practices. Knowledge in evolutionary ecology and life history traits with a PhD and/or a postdoc in those areas are welcome. Further requirements are knowledge in spatio-temporal dynamics of complex biological systems, proficiency in writing and communication skills, self-motivation, and ability to work in an international and interdisciplinary team. Good knowledge in French and English is required.
Conditions: The postdoc will integrate the UMR EGCE based in Gif-sur-Yvette (southwest of Paris, France, in the green valley of Chevreuse). Project meeting are planned in Europe. Salary and benefits are according to public service positions in France, depending on experience. The postdoc start date is planned on February 2022.
Application procedures: Send your application in a single pdf file by email to Fabrice Requier (fabrice.requier@egce.cnrs-gif.fr) and François Rebaudo (francois.rebaudo@ird.fr) no later than November 30th, 2021. Title your email “Postdoc application – Modelling honeybee resilience”. Your application must include (i) a letter stating your motivations for this project, (ii) a CV and (iii) the names of two referees (with e-mail addresses). You can contact fabrice.requier@egce.cnrs-gif.fr for any further information.