Universität Konstanz
Location
Konstanz | Germany
Job description
The University of Konstanz is one of eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany. Since 2007 it has been successful in the German Excellence Initiative and its follow-up programme, the Excellence Strategy.
We seek a doctoral student to join the Move.inFormation research group in an exciting new project investigating the use of social information for optimal movement in the largest of soaring birds, the Andean condor. The candidate will use animal attached bio-loggers and remote sensing to quantify the value of social information for increased certainty in movement decisions when the dynamism of multiple resource landscapes are considered (e.g., environmental energy, food). The position provides an exciting opportunity for candidates wishing to conduct in-depth research into collective movement strategies with state-of-the-art methodologies. It has a strong interdisciplinary focus at the intersection of ecology, behaviour, engineering and physics and runs in affiliation with the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour and the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior.
Background: Movement strategies and energetic dynamism are inherently linked, such that social groups are bounded by shared resource and information needs with macroecological consequences for space use at local and global scales. This is especially so for those moving in aerial environments where the extreme cost of flight has led to the evolution of soaring strategies that exploit aerial updrafts as a resource for decreased movement costs, in the same way that they search for food patches to increase fuel uptake. Up-to-date information on resource availability is key to operating in dynamic landscapes and moving systems must be selected to perceive relevant information, build up an expectation, and act so as to exploit the energy available optimally. Yet the idea that social information can be used to perceive movement energetics as an essential strategy for reduced movement costs has been completely overlooked. This PhD will investigate how the energy efficiency of the largest soaring bird, the Andean Condor ( Vultur gryphus ), is influenced by the availability of social cues and the resources they relate to, with particular focus on movement costs and strategies: the aim being to provide a mechanistic understanding for the emergence of animal aggregations, exploring the the functional complexity of collectives and their resilience to environmental dynamics.
In this project the candidate will establish a long-term field site for the tracking of a population of Andean Condors (Argentina) – a model systems for the investigation of probabilistic movement-decisions in dynamic environments – with the deployment (and possible development) of cutting-edge bio-logging technology. Animal-attached bio-loggers will record the position (GPS and proximity data), fine-scale locomotion (inertial measurement units, IMU – accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope) and environmental measures (temperature, humidity, barometric pressure) of a group of approximately 50 individuals of various ages, experience and sex. By recording the movement, behaviour, and environment of all individuals in a population, we can record social information transfer and thus the energetic value of social information given flight costs. We will map environmental conditions with incredibly high precision from movement tracks themselves in terms of wind and uplift availability, and food resource distributions from foraging behaviour captured in IMU signal outputs.
Research Statement: Applications should include a 1-2 page research statement that describes:
i) your main research interests, how they developed, and how they relate to the proposed research project.
ii) how you would approach this PhD project with research questions of interest.
Please highlight particular experience with movement data, bio-logging technology, flight, and/or social behaviour, or how you may apply insights from a alternate field to the data types and research questions specific to this PhD.
Questions can be directed to Dr. Hannah Williams via e-mail: [email protected] .
We look forward to receiving your application until 15.03.2024 via our Online Application Portal . Please attach your research statement and CV, along with two references to the online application.
The University of Konstanz is committed to ensuring an environment that provides equal opportunities and promotes diversity, as well as a good balance between university and family life. As an equal opportunity employer, we strive to increase the number of women working in research and teaching. We also support working couples through our dual career programme . Persons with disabilities are explicitly encouraged to apply. They will be given preference if appropriately qualified (contact [email protected] , + 49 7531 88-4016).
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