Are you interested in sustainability, biogeography, urban landscape ecology, biodiversity conservation, urban heat island effect, unique geologic features, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, weather, and/or climate? Are you looking for opportunities to get involved with research and boost your CV or resume?
If so, I encourage you to apply for this Geography URCA Research Assistant position.
You will have a choice to explore the biogeography of greenspaces within the built environment (urban landscape) to better understand the spatial patterns of urban biodiversity and ecological networks, and assess what impact, if any, urban landscape features and abiotic characteristics have on those spatial patterns. More specifically, in this option, you will help assess the socio-ecological role of urban greenways (one pictured below with SIUE students, Enoh Francis and Wade Filges, setting up the sensors on the McCarragher Biogeography Research Group mobile weather ebike). Ultimately, greenways serve as an interface between human and natural systems across built environments and thus may act as both an ecological network and a means for enhancing urban resilience and sustainability.
The other option is to explore the spatial characteristics of unique closed topographic depressions that have developed in the siliciclastic rocks of the Cumberland Plateau (one pictured below with UTC student, William Stuart, conducting fieldwork). These depressions have been hypothesized to form via collapse of rock into caverns formed in the carbonate-rich rocks below. You would assist with fully characterize the shape, orientation, and area of these features using remote-sensing technology and other GIS tools to identify any existing patterns that would help inform our subsurface information and test the cave collapse hypothesis.
Deadline to apply is Saturday, 7/14 by 5 PM, so don’t put it off – apply ASAP!
Check out the application page or contact Dr. McCarragher for more details.
To apply, visit the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Program website at: https://www.siue.edu/urca/assistantapplicationpage.shtml
Then scroll down to find ‘Geography’ then click ‘Apply Now!’ in the row for ‘Shannon McCarragher.’
Shannon McCarragher, Ph.D. 