As part of a CONACyT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) funded, proposal:*»Ecología, Balance de carbono y adaptaciones del zooplancton de la zona del Mínimo de Oxígeno del Pacífico tropical mexicano» *in México, we invite to possible Ph.D. students to joint this very exciting project in the Mexican tropical Pacific’s low oxygen waters, with international collaborations. Research focus on zooplankton, its trophic relationships, its vertical and horizontal distribution, and their adaptations. These proposals are renewable, so this is intended to be a long term study.
*Subect 1*
Physiological adaptations of Euphausiids of the Low oxygenated water of the Mexican tropical Pacific and southern California Current. *Motivation:* Euphausiids are the best adapted zooplankton group to low oxygen and use this environment as their normal environment, we want to understand how they do it. *Contact: Jaime Färber Lorda (**jfarber@cicese.mx**)
*Suject 2*
13C and 15N stable isotopes in the Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) of the mexican tropical Pacific and the Southern California Current. *Motivation:* The food web in this OMZ’s are different from other areas, we want to better understand how different. Samples of zooplankton will be obtained and splitted in different size classes and the isotopic and carbon and nitrogen composition will be analyzed. *Contact:* *Jaime Färber Lorda (**jfarber@cicese.mx**)
*Subject 3*
Horizontal and vertical distribution of zooplankton in the Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) of the Mexican tropical Pacific. Relationship with trophic conditions, oxygen and hidrography, with emphasis on Euphausiids and Pteropods. *Motivation:* With the aid of a MOCNESS net we will make a stratified sampling of zooplankton in the area of the entrance of the Gulf of California, during two different seasons, to understand their vertical distribution in relation to oxygen and hidrography.*Contact: Jaime Färber Lorda (**jfarber@cicese.mx**)
Other possible subjects are:
– Transcriptomics of Euphausiids, to understand how do they adapt to low oxygen, in collaboration with Dr. Axayacatl Rocha-Olivares, México.
– Enzymatic activities of Euphausiids to understand how do they adapt to low oxygen, in collaboration with Dr. Santiago Hernández León, Spain.
*Application Conditions and Scholarship Fees*
– Master in Science in: Biology, Ecology, Chemical oceanography, or similar Master degrees.
– Good preparation in Chemistry, biochemistry, and/or Molecular biology.
– Good Knowledge of English (Toefl, 450).
– Notes mean equivalent to 86 in Mexican scale (0 to 100) in their master studies.
– Capacity to do team work, field work, and during oceanographic cruises.
– Good writing capacity of scientific papers and other.
– Capable of doing autonomous research work.
– Experience in Oceanographic cruises is a plus.
– Very good knowledge of Spanish is essential to the good development of the courses and research work.
– Interested students wil apply for Ph. in CICESE through our page, and will send write and their CV to *Jaime Färber Lorda (**jfarber@cicese.mx <mailto:jfarber@cicese.mx>**).
– To be accepted, It is essential to have contacted a scientist of our post-graduate program, and be accepted by her/him as a possible Ph. D. Student in her/his laboratory.
*The interested will have to write a *pre-proposal* on the subject they choose and will be evaluated by a /ad-hoc/ comitee.
*Fees
*All accepted students, *independently of their nationality*, will have a scholarship from CONACyT*. The amount of the scholarships for Ph. D. students is $13,147 pesos, *the chosen students will have medical security coverage during the entire period of their studies.
