Research Associate (Fixed Term) Cambridge, East of England, England
Job description
We are seeking an outstanding landscape ecologist with experience of working at the interface between biodiversity science and remote sensing. They will join the Centre for Landscape Regeneration (CLR), funded through the Natural Environment Research Council's Changing the Environment programme. CLR aims to provide the evidence needed to fulfill government ambitions to bring back more nature to British countryside and deliver a greater range of ecosystem services than food production (important though that is). The programme is focusing on three contrasting landscapes: the East Anglian fenland (primarily used for productive arable agriculture); the Scottish Highlands (traditionally used for deer stalking and forestry plantations) and the Lake District (with a thousand-year history of extensive sheep grazing).
We envisage using several remote sensing products to achieve these objectives, and will give the postdoc the opportunity to decide which datasets to collect / purchase. We plan to fly watercourses and other wetlands in the fens, with a Mavic 3M drone this summer to obtain detailed imagery for habitat classification. We will also plan to purchase high-resolution satellite imagery (e.g. Maxar) to evaluate whether nuanced habitat classification is possible from space using CNN. In the Cairngorms we plan to conduct an airborne lidar and photographic survey, to provide detailed habitat structure data.
The project provides an exciting opportunity to understand human influences on biodiversity in three iconic regions of the UK, and produce evidence that is relevant to policy and practice.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 33 months in the first instance.
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