The Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) is seeking a postdoctoral associate to conduct research on changing habitat conditions for groundfishes with a focus on spawning and early life stages (eggs, larvae, juveniles). In the Bering Sea, recent declines in sea ice have coincided with northward distributional shifts in summer of species such as Pacific cod, yet it is unknown how or whether winter spawning habitat is also shifting, or the consequences of these changes for survival and recruitment. The postdoctoral associate will integrate oceanographic data, downscaled climate model hindcasts and projections, physiological response curves, and data on early life stages (eggs, larvae), to evaluate historical and future changes in groundfish habitat. The initial focus will be on addressing fundamental knowledge gaps in the spawning dynamics of Pacific cod in the Bering Sea that impact the distribution, timing, and spawning output of the stock, and how it responds to climate extremes (e.g. loss of sea ice). Research foci may expand along multiple avenues depending on the interests of the candidate.

We are especially seeking candidates interested in engaging with the fisheries management process in Alaska to transform research results into products useful for management.

We seek a quantitative fisheries ecologist with experience in statistical modeling, analyzing large datasets, knowledge of fish physiology, and experience in statistical programming languages such as R. Prior experience working with the output of ROMS and GCMs would be helpful.

Mentors for this research will be Drs. Lauren Rogers (primary) and Ben Laurel at AFSC. The post-doctoral associate will join an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratories, and University of Washington.

References:

Hermann, A. J., Gibson, G. A., Cheng, W., Ortiz, I., Aydin, K., Wang, M., Hollowed, A. B., & Holsman, K. K. (2019). Projected biophysical conditions of the Bering Sea to 2100 under multiple emission scenarios. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 76, 1280–1304. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsz043

Laurel, B. J., & Rogers, L. A. (2020). Loss of spawning habitat and prerecruits of Pacific cod during a Gulf of Alaska heatwave. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 77(4), 644–650. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2019-0238

Rogers, L. A., & Dougherty, A. B. (2019). Effects of climate and demography on reproductive phenology of a harvested marine fish population. Global Change Biology, 25(2), 708–720. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14483