Location: Redding, CT

Highstead, a regional land conservation and ecological research center is accepting applications for two field ecology interns to participate in Highstead’s long-term research and monitoring program in the summer of 2015.  The major project will be to resample ~75-100 permanent forest vegetation plots on Highstead’s 100+ acre preserve.   Interns will gain extensive experience with forest vegetation sampling techniques and woody and herbaceous plant identification.  Positions will be predominantly field-based but will also include data entry, some herbarium work (mounting pressed specimens), limited data analysis, and preparing a 15-minute final presentation for Highstead staff.  The internship will likely include opportunities to visit/conduct field work at the Harvard Forest and the Quabbin Reservoir Forest in Massachusetts and perhaps other field sites in Northern Connecticut.

Qualifications:

Upper level undergraduate or recent graduate in botany, plant ecology, or related field.  Applicants should have previous experience with field work.  Successful applicants must
(1) have a keen interest in the study and intensive identification of woody and herbaceous plants including grasses and sedges
(2)be enthusiastic about conducting intensive fieldwork in hot, humid and sometimes rainy weather; in a landscape with deer ticks; and in forest understories with downed trees and thick, often spiny (i.e. Japanese barberry, multiflora rose) shrub layers
(3) be very detail-oriented to collect careful and accurate data in challenging field conditions, collect and press unknown plant specimens, and enter data into a database.

Supervision

Interns will be supervised primarily by Highstead’s ecologist with some supervision by Highstead’s operations director.

Position Dates: Monday, May 25 - Friday, August 7, 2015

Stipend: $5,000.00 and free furnished housing.

Website: http://www.highstead.net

To apply, please send a cover letter and resume (with relevant experience and contact information for three references) to [email protected]; reference Ecology Intern Application as the email subject. 

Accepting applications immediately.  Review of applicants will begin in mid-February and continue until position is filled in March.

• Residential internship at the Huyck Preserve and Biological Research Station
• Four highly qualified undergraduate students will be selected each summer.
• Full-time internship for the duration of eight weeks
• The internship is unpaid, however housing and equipment is provided
• Arrangements for college credit may be possible and must be made with the applicant’s home institution.
• Applications are Due second Friday of March by 5:00 PM
  

More information and Application Instructions

The Louis Calder Center, the Biological Field Station of Fordham University, is offering a summer NSF-funded research program for undergraduate students in 2015. Our NSF-REU site  provides paid research opportunities for talented and enthusiastic undergraduate students interested in conducting independent research in ecology, conservation and field biology. This program strongly encourages students from under-represented groups in science to apply.

• 10-week program: June 8 to August 14, 2015.
• $5,000 stipend including housing and travel support
• Application deadline: February 2, 2015

Students will collaborate with faculty mentors to develop an independent research project. A sample of some of the potential student projects for 2015 includes:

• Diversity/abundance of carrion beetles along an urban-to-rural gradient
• Cause of cyanobacterial blooms in a suburban lake
• Bat activity in New York City
• Energy use and seasonality in nymphal deer ticks, Ixodes scapularis
• Role of climate change on the evolution of introduced herbaceous plants
• Molecular ecology of coyotes in the Bronx and Westchester County, NY
• Differentiation of chimpmunks in the northeastern US
• Genetic assessment of multiple microbial infections in blacklegged ticks near New York City
• Examine responses of plants, fungi and microbes to urbanization
• The nutritional role of algae in stream food webs
• Ecology of the Asian Tiger Mosquito, Ades albopictus, in southern New York State

The Harvard Forest Summer Research Program in Ecology is an opportunity for students to participate in 11 weeks of mentored, paid, independent research focusing on the effects of natural and human disturbances on forest ecosystems, including global climate change, hurricanes, forest harvest, changing wildlife dynamics, and invasive species. Researchers come from many disciplines, and specific projects center on population and community ecology, paleoecology, land-use history, aquatic ecology, biochemistry, soil science, ecophysiology, and atmosphere-biosphere exchanges (see 2015 research projects and 2014 student abstracts). Read student experiences from past summers on our blog.

We are now accepting applications for the 2015 summer program.

Application Deadline is Friday, February 6, 2015, 11:59PM EST.

2015 Summer Program Dates
Monday, May 25 - Friday, August 7, 2015

Benefits

• Stipend of $5500 for the 11-week session
• Free furnished housing at Fisher House or Raup House
• Free full meal plan
• Travel reimbursement for one round trip to the Forest (federal grant restrictions apply)