Employment, Study and Volunteer Opportunities

We regularly post jobs, PhD positions and other paid or volunteer work relating to ecology, in New Zealand and overseas. Please also join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to be kept up-to-date!

PhD Opportunity at the University of Waikato

Fuel for Recovery: Using food-web science to improve translocation success

Closes 30 November 2026 or until filled

Conservation translocations are a cornerstone of threatened species recovery in Aotearoa New Zealand, yet outcomes vary considerably among species and sites despite intensive invasive predator management. One potential reason is that habitat assessments typically focus on predation risk while overlooking food availability as a fundamental driver of population establishment and persistence. This PhD project will investigate how invertebrate food resources influence the success of translocated bird populations, using the North Island robin (toutouwai) as a model to inform conservation of the critically endangered Chatham Island black robin (karure/kakaruia). The student will combine field ecology, molecular diet analysis, invertebrate monitoring, and population modelling to quantify the relative importance of food limitation, competition with invasive insectivores, and predation in determining translocation outcomes.

For more information, please see the PDF (George Mason Trust PhD Advert) attached to this page.

PHD Opportunity - Freshwater Ecology

Closes 15 September 2026

The University of Canterbury and the Department of Conservation (DOC) invite applications for four interconnected UC Connect PhD Scholarships in their collaborative research programme.
Working as part of the Freshwater Ecology Research Group (FERG), you’ll join a collaborative cohort of PhD students, University of Canterbury researchers and DOC staff investigating the ecological processes that sustain New Zealand’s iconic braided rivers.

For more information, please see the PDF (UC_BIOL_PhD_connects) attached to this page.