LTE Wildlife Research Scientist

Earth Day; Madison (WI); On-site; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Earth Day in Madison, Wisconsin seeks a researcher to support applied R&D for population metrics derived from Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera data to guide wildlife management decisions.

You will develop and enhance annual decision-support products, advance quantitative models, and communicate results through manuscripts and dynamic R reports for diverse audiences.

Qualifications

• Pull and process Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera data from an Oracle database using custom R functions and packages.
• Generate workflows for pulling covariate data, especially those that change in space and time (e.g., temperature and precipitation).
• Contribute to custom R packages, especially adding documentation and new functions.

Responsibilities

• Produce and improve upon annual decision-support products.
• Model development using occupancy, N-mixture, Poisson regression, GAMMs, and related approaches.
• Communicate research findings through peer-reviewed manuscripts and dynamic reports in R.

Skills

R programming

Statistical modeling

Data analysis

Scientific writing

Spatial-temporal analysis

Tools

Oracle database

R

Job description

This position will support applied research and development of population metrics from Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera data to inform management of deer, turkeys, and other Wisconsin wildlife species.

The position will be responsible for producing and improving upon the annual decision support products from Snapshot data. The incumbent of this position will work on quantitative model development (e.g., hierarchical models, GAMMs) and communicating research findings through writing peer-reviewed manuscripts and creating dynamic reports in R. This position works under general supervision.

40% Produce and improve upon annual decision-support products

• Pull and process Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera data from an Oracle database using custom R functions and packages
• Generate workflows for pulling covariate data, especially those that change in space and time (e.g., temperature and precipitation)
• Contribute to custom R packages, especially adding documentation and new functions
• Create procedures to visualize and understand raw data
• Assess data quality and identify inconsistencies in data that require further checking
• Create data workflow graphics and documentation to ensure consistent pulling and processing of data

25% Model development

• Assess patterns in data to separate noise (e.g., sampling issues, classification differences, detection differences) from abundance trends
• Analyze trail camera data using a range of models with covariates (e.g., occupancy, N-mixture, Poisson regression, generalized additive mixed models, etc.)
• Running frequentist and Bayesian models with various fixed and random effect structures
• Assess model fit and model predictions
• Visualize model predictions spatially and temporally

25% Research communications

• Contribute to analysis and writing of peer-reviewed manuscripts, edit manuscripts, respond to reviewer comments, create graphs, tables, and supplemental material for manuscripts
• Conduct literature review and participate in reading group discussions of manuscripts
• Lead in writing of annual reports and developing PowerPoint presentations and posters for technical and lay audiences
• Generate dynamic reports to communicate annual decision support products
• Contribute to oral presentation for technical and lay audiences

10% Other duties as assigned