30 Apr 2024
Job Information
- Organisation/Company
CNRS- Department
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale- Research Field
Engineering
Computer science
Mathematics- Researcher Profile
First Stage Researcher (R1)- Country
France- Application Deadline
20 May 2024 - 23:59 (UTC)- Type of Contract
Temporary- Job Status
Full-time- Hours Per Week
35- Offer Starting Date
2 Sep 2024- Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?
H2020 / ERC- Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?
No
Offer Description
This work will form part of the Bee-Move ERC project (doi :10.3030/101002644), a collaboration between two Toulouse laboratories: the Centre de Recherche sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA) and the Laboratoire d'Analyse et d'Architecture des Systèmes (LAAS CNRS). The candidate will join an international, interdisciplinary team (electronic engineering, computational biology, ethology, ecology) working to understand pollinator movements and their impact on plant reproduction. Work will be carried out under the supervision of Mathieu Lihoreau (DR CNRS - CRCA) and Hervé Aubert (Prof - LAAS-CNRS).
Pollinating insects, like bees, provide a major ecosystem service that we need to preserve. By moving from flower to flower, these insects ensure plant reproduction, a phenomenon vital to the functioning of our terrestrial ecosystems. Despite over a century of research into bee behavior, very little is known about how these insects move and interact in landscapes (Collett et al. 2013). Understanding these behaviors is necessary to understand and act on pollination. The main difficulty is to measure the movements of these small animals (a few centimetres long), which can travel several kilometers to visit hundreds of flowers, several times a day for several weeks. In recent years, radar systems have been proposed to locate one insect at a time, in 2D, over several hundred meters (Reynolds et al. 1996; Capaldi et al. 2000; Lihoreau et al. 2012; Brebner et al. 2021). Although this is an important first step, it remains a major challenge to track several insects at once in 3D.
The aim of the thesis is to test a system for tracking the trajectories of several insects both in 3D and in the field using harmonic radars. To achieve this, the thesis will combine technical developments based on existing radar prototypes, with field experiments to validate the system with insects (honey bees and bumblebees).
References
Brebner JS, Makinson JC, Bates OK, Rossi N, Lim KS, Dubois T, Gomez-Moracho T, Lihoreau M, Chittka L, Woodgate JL (2021) Bumble bees strategically use ground level linear features in navigation. Animal Behaviour 179:147-160.
Capaldi EA, Smith AD, Osborne JL, Fahrbach SE, Farris SM, Reynolds DR, Edwards AS, Martin A, Robinson GE, Poppy GM, Riley JR (2000) Ontogeny of orientation flight in the honeybee revealed by harmonic radar. Nature 403:537-540.
Collett M, Chittka L, Collett TS (2013) Spatial memory in insect navigation. Current Biology 23: R789-R800.
Lihoreau M, Raine NE, Reynolds AM, Stelzer RJ, Lim KS, Smith AD, Osborne JL, Chittka L. Radar tracking and motion-sensitive cameras on flowers reveal the development of pollinator multi-destination routes over large spatial scales. PloS Biology 10: e1001392.
Riley JR, Smith AD, Reynolds DR, Edwards AS, Osborne JL, Williams IH, Carreck NL, Poppy GM (1996) tracking bees with harmonic radar. Nature 379:29-30.
Requirements
- Research Field
- Engineering
- Education Level
- Master Degree or equivalent
- Research Field
- Computer science
- Education Level
- Master Degree or equivalent
- Research Field
- Mathematics
- Education Level
- Master Degree or equivalent
- Languages
- FRENCH
- Level
- Basic
- Research Field
- Engineering
- Years of Research Experience
- None
- Research Field
- Computer science
- Years of Research Experience
- None
- Research Field
- Mathematics
- Years of Research Experience
- None
Additional Information
Additional comments
http://www.mathieu-lihoreau.com/bee-move/
- Website for additional job details
https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR5169-MATLIH-023/Default.aspx
Work Location(s)
- Number of offers available
- 1
- Company/Institute
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale
- Country
- France
- City
- TOULOUSE
- Geofield
Where to apply
- Website
https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Candidat/Offre/UMR5169-MATLIH-023/Candidater.aspx
Contact
- City
TOULOUSE- Website
https://crca.cbi-toulouse.fr
STATUS: EXPIRED