Natural Resources Job Board

We are searching for a PhD student to lead a new study investigating how management of beavers and beaver dam analogues influence terrestrial and aquatic communities. Part of the project will be experimental, evaluating non-lethal beaver water level management tools to address the ulitilty of those techniques for managers concerned with flooding, as well as the ecological responses to those control structures in the eastern United States. The other part of the project will focus on the western US, where beaver dam analogues are being deployed to replicate lost effects of beavers in the Great Plains.  Here, potential questions again relate to management utility/longevity of these devices, but also to the ecological effects of these devices on riparian and aquatic communities (both terrestrial and aquatic).

Applicants are required to have an MS in wildlife ecology or a related field, have previous experience in studying the ecology of wildlife in a field setting and a valid US driver’s license. Top applicants will have a strong interest in the ecology of mammals and their impact on other trophic levels, as well as evidence of strong scientific writing and basic statistics.  Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, contact information for 3 references,  unofficial transcripts, and (optional) a scientific writing sample as a single PDF titled “LastName_PhDapplication”  to djachow@clemson.edu prior to May 15, 2024.  Ideally, the selected student would start at Clemson in August 2024, although a delayed start day is potentially negotiable.

The selected student will be awarded a 4-year graduate research assistantship (starting at $27,000/year, health benefits, along with tuition waiver) to attend Clemson University. The student will be advised by Dr. David Jachowski within the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Conservation. Clemson University is the largest public land grant university in the state of South Carolina and nationally recognized as an R1 (“very high research activity”) institution. Clemson is a small town located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the shores of Lake Hartwell. Campus is surrounded by the 17,500-acre Clemson Experimental Forest, providing abundant opportunities for recreation, research and education.