GIS/data base Technicial Assistant at the Huinay Scientific Field Station (Chilean Patagonia)

TIME FRAME: 6 months trial period, but ideally until March 2019, starting mid May 2016

Key abilities:

• GIS and data base experience

• fluent English

• biological understanding
  
  

We are ideally looking for a biologist with strong computer/statistical experience.

Computer skills:

• Database experience is necessary, ideally with a knowledge of SQL, PostgreSQL and PostGIS.

• experience in use of GIS programs

• experiencein use of software for statistical/ecological/zoogeographic analysis, or willingness to learn (self-teach): R, PRIMER, cluster analysis, multivariante analysis, random forests, species distribution models

• System administrative skills (hard ware installation and network configuration in LINUX and Windows) are very desirable.
  
  

In addition he/she should:

• be an open, communicative, easy-going and nature-loving person who has no problems or rather enjoys to live in an isolated and rainy place (surrounded by lush forests) and be able to adapt to new situations

• be self motivated and able to deal with the difficulties of living in a small remote place with few people

• be organized and have strong organizational skills

• have a general scientific, biological (taxonomical) and ecological background or interest (ideally knowledge of or at least interest in marine invertebrates).

• be flexible, patient and should be able to improvise (experience in developing countries or, even better, in South America is an advantage)

• Spanish knowledge is of advantage
  
  

The technical assistant will be in charge of maintaining a database containing data collected during field work and other projects of the scientific field station. The database includes geographic data in the PostGis format. The frontend should be able to display this data and enable geographic queries. For this purpose GeoServer could be used. The assistant will further be in charge of maintaining computers and a server at the field station. He/she will also participate in training and supervising interns (who can help adding data). Other tasks can, if time allows, involve daily activities at the station which are generally carried out by two scientific-technical assistants. He/she can and should work quite independently, but follow the guidelines given by the scientific director/managing scientist and ask for feedback when necessary.

The selected candidate will get a two week training from the former data base assistant.

We offer:

• 600.000 CLP/month (remark: general health insurance is pretty good in Chile and there is an additional health insurance for work-related accidents)

• Free lodging and food at the station and free transportation to and from Hornopiren on regular boat trips. You can also take the ferry that runs twice a week for approx. 3 US$. There are no expensed while you are at the station.

• trip/flight back to the place of origin (if outside of Chile) after termination of the work contract (if you stay for the full time)

• 4 days off for every 11 days of work and 20 days of vacation days (Monday through Friday) each year

You can find more information on the website http://www.huinay.cl

We are looking forward to your applications consisting of a cover letter explaining your personal incentive to apply at Huinay Scientific Field Station and why you think you are qualified for the job, and a CV (no longer than 4 pages). Please list 2-3 references that are able to speak of your abilities to deal with difficult and unknown situations, rather than just your professional abilities. Please do not send reference letters until you are asked for them. We will contact references for the short listed applicants only. Please send the full application to huinayresearch@gmail.com

It is necessary that the successful applicants apply for their work visas prior to arrival at the station. The successful applicant will be sent copy of the work contract which needs to be signed and returned for confirmation by a legal representative in order for you to apply for a work visa. This process can take up to 8 weeks.

If you are an experienced diver and bring your equipment (including dry suit), you may also have the possibility to help with dive work from time to time. Please also please mention if you have a boat driving license

Besides the database, there will be various aspects of statistical analysis, the largest project being the following (we will know if it is approved en early 2016):

Project summary

Abiotic key factors influencing species composition in Chilean Patagonian fjords and their usefulness as proxies for species distribution models, habitat mapping and predicting patterns in benthic assemblages.

The world's oceans harbour a great biodiversity and despite the importance of marine organisms for global biochemical cycles and human welfare, their distribution and ecology are often poorly understood. But at a time of growing human pressures on our coasts and the widespread decline of marine resources, there is a rising need to understand and predict the spatial distribution of coastal biodiversity and biological resources. This understanding is essential to gain insight into ecological processes in marine ecosystems and to guide ecosystem management strategies. Marine spatial planning should take account of the contribution of coastal habitats to the functioning of the coastal marine ecosystem. However, mapping biodiversity by means of traditional sampling methods is expensive and time-consuming and often has poor historical coverage compared to their terrestrial equivalents. Moreover, traditional sampling-point-wise field work is not suitable for covering extensive areas in high detail. This has led to the development of new approaches to biodiversity measurements, including the use of indirect abiotic proxies, statistical modeling, remote sensing and a combination of the above. Surrogacy research is a rapidly-growing field and useful relationships have been identified for several aspects of marine benthic biodiversity values.

Hardbottom habitats support high levels of biodiversity and the upper subtidal of Chilean Patagonia is dominated by hard bottom. However, most former studied have used “hard bottom” as one proxy for biodiversity in marine spatial planning, compared to soft bottom and gravel etc. For Patagonian benthos, we need to add more specific proxies which are relevant to hard bottom communities. Within the planned project we study the diversity-rich hard-bottom habitats and the abiotic factors influencing them. We aim to detect the most relevant proxies for species distribution, habitat mapping and predicting patterns in benthic assemblages.

To accomplish this, we will assess the 13 abiotic factors slope, rugosity, geology, depth, temperature (bottom and surface), salinity, pH, turbidity, wave energy, current, nutrients and chlorophyll a along three selected fjords of Chilean Patagonia which differ in exposition, fresh-water influence, glacial sediment input and geology. We will do this by applying an AUV-based multi-beam acoustic sonar (measuring slope, depth, rugosity), and a CTD (measuring temperature, salinity, pH, turbidity). We will take geological and water samples to determine type of rock and to measure nutrients. We will use gypsum blocks to estimate near-bottom average current. We will use remote sensing data for sea surface temperature and chlorophyll a (AquaMODIS satellite). A wave exposure model will be used to estimate average wave energy at each site.

Parallel we will assess the benthic species at three sites along each of the fjords (inner, mid and outer fjord) applying photo-transects (0 to 28 m depth) and ROV video transects (30 to 200 m depth). We will determine species number, percent coverage of functional groups and the abundance categories of 35 selected species from seven functional groups.

For assessing the importance of the 13 environmental factors for the benthic species/assemblages, random forest (RF) analyzes will be used. In general, RF have an excellent explanatory power (pseudo-r2 very high, equivalent to r2) and therefore are ideal for proxy analyzes. Analyzes will be carried out using the library randomForest in R. We will test the explanatory power of the proxies in distribution models of species with previously mapped distribution.

Major outcomes will be new comprehensive data sets of abiotic factors and benthic assemblages for the three fjords Comau, Pitipalena and Baker/Martinez, and the development of proxies for species distribution models, habitat mapping and predicting patterns in benthic assemblages. We will create habitat maps for the three fjords. Other publications will deal with the comparison of benthic assemblages, geology, oceanography and nutrients between the three fjords of Chilean Patagonia.

Analysis which will need to be carried out:

- interpolation of physical data

- automatized soft-ware based relative coverage analysis of transect photos

- random forest (RF) analyses

- species distribution models

Information about the Huinay Foundation:

The Huinay Foundation is a private Foundation that is operating a scientific field station in Chilean Patagonia. Huinay Scientific Field Station was inaugurated in 2001 and is situated 100 km south of Puerto Montt, in the fjord Comau; it is the only scientific station in a Chilean fjord. The surroundings are characterized by steep mountains and volcanoes. Almost 6000 mm annual precipitation gives rise to extremely lush vegetation characterized by extra-tropical rain forests.

The small village of Huinay neighbors the scientific field station and has approximately 15 inhabitants. Huinay can only be accessed by a 1-1.5 hour boat-trip (speed boat) from Hornopiren. The closest amenities, besides some small shops and a rural hospital in Hornopiren, are located in Puerto Montt, a 3 to 4 h drive or bus trip from Hornopiren.

Knowledge of organisms and ecological functioning of the fjord ecosystems is very poor in Chilean Patagonia, especially in the marine environment. The goal of the station is, besides carrying out some long term projects, to attract national and international projects which help to fill this existing gap.

To accomplish this, the field station has basic infrastructure: a dry and a wet laboratory, diving and lodging facilities (8 rooms for up to approximately 16 scientists/assistants/interns).

Projects involve all kinds of terrestrial and marine base-line research. Ongoing projects include for example counseling for the establishment of a network of marine protected areas. In this context we are mainly promoting inventory studies of the fjord ecosystems and we generally organize at least one expedition to remote areas of the fjord region each year.

In 2010 we finished a major project, a scientific field guide for marine benthic fauna of Chilean Patagonia (see www.PatagoniaMarina.info).

We have telephone and internet access via satellite and power supply by a hydroelectric plant. We have two permanent technical-scientific assistants, and one GIS/database assistant. The assistants are supervised and report to two biologists in charge of the scientific operation who are approximately a one week a month on the station, but can be contacted practically at any time. Besides these two scientists (the scientific director and a research coordinator) and their assistants, the permanent staff consists of the an administrator, administrative assistant, one person in charge of the greenhouse, two boat captains, 1-2 people in charge for cooking and cleaning, and approximately 3 auxiliary administrative workers. We have 1-2 interns at any time at the station who help the scientific-technical assistants. Scientists can visit throughout the year, but most visit between December and April (in the last years we had approximately 15 groups with a total of 40-50 scientists yearly)