An excellent opportunity for an innovative multi-disciplinary scientist, with expertise in both biology or geography and strong quantitative skills, to work on a large, collaborative project, that will contribute to the design of agricultural landscapes than deliver multiple functions (AgLand). Working in a team of inter-disciplinary scientists you will develop models to map the supply of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, biodiversity and recreation, across the UK in the context of sustainable food production. You will have access to multiple large datasets (including land cover maps and long-term environmental monitoring data from study landscapes) and combine these with novel metrics of habitat configuration and composition to analyse relationships amongst multiple ecosystem services and with landscape and farm archetypes. Two approaches are being taken for the development of models – the application of process-based ecosystem service models (e.g. InVEST) where these already exist and can be re-parameterised for the UK landscape, or, where process-based models are not available, the development of empirical statistical models to predict ecosystem services from available landscape-scale data.
You will primarily focus on the development of empirical statistical models, using UK-wide landscape-scale data, the improvement of process-based models using statistical modelling approaches, including linking datasets collected at different spatial and temporal scales, and the use of multivariate statistical methods to explore the relationships amongst the modelled ecosystem services.
The successful candidate will have a good understanding of empirical statistical modelling and multivariate analysis methods, built on a solid understanding of ecosystem services and the impact of landscape characteristics on the supply of different ecosystem services, and, ideally, an interest in human geography. You will need to work closely with statisticians, process-based modellers, earth observation scientists and ecosystem services scientists at Rothamsted Research, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) and the James Hutton Institute.
The post represents an excellent opportunity to progress your career in a policy relevant area of science that will help inform the future management of farmed landscapes.
