The Marine Ecologist posts advertised here will work in the Marine Monitoring Team, Marine Ecosystems Team, Marine Protected Areas Team or Marine Management Team at JNCC. These teams work very closely together to develop marine evidence products to produce high quality advice to the UK Government, the Devolved Administrations, the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies, international organisations and others.
The work of the Marine Monitoring Team includes:
• Organising offshore seabed surveys to gather additional information to support designation, monitoring and assessment of offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs);
• Development of standards, guidelines and methods at a UK and international level for matters such as data management and marine survey;
• Coordination of the UK Marine Monitoring Programme working under the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy with other partners through the Healthy and Biologically Diverse Seas Evidence Group; and
• Provision of expert advice to national fora, including the Marine Science Co-ordination Committee, the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy and the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network.
The work of the Marine Management Team includes:
• Provision of advice to Government and regulators on the impacts of fishing on the marine environment. Support for future fisheries policy development post-EU exit; Support in development of fisheries management measures in MPAs; Support for International fisheries advice work
• Provision of evidence-based advice on the environmental impacts of offshore industry activities on marine habitats and species to appropriate authorities responsible for their regulation.
• Supporting strategic research to underpin evidence gaps to support advice provision.
The work of the Marine Ecosystems Team includes:
• Developing and implementing modelling tools, metrics, and indicators to measure the condition, health and trends of marine ecosystems to support implementation of management measures, and the production of national and international assessments;
• Developing marine natural capital evidence to support environmental decision making;
• Providing advice to Governments in their response to reporting requirements under a range of Multilateral Environmental Agreements, such as OSPAR and the Convention on Biological Diversity;
• Delivering advice on the assessment of offshore MPAs in UK waters.
The work of the Marine Protected Areas team includes:
Advising UK Government and the Devolved Administrations on designating Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) in their waters.
• Supporting other teams and external partners in the management, monitoring and assessment of UK MPAs.
• Representing the UK at external meetings and international fora on topics relating to MPAs.
• Supporting our work to export our domestic expertise internationally under the Ocean Country Partnership Programme; a Defra-led programme of technical assistance for which MPAs forms a key component with JNCC as a key delivery partner.
Job Description:
There are 5 posts being advertised as part of this recruitment. The nature and specific duties of each post are further described below. However, all posts will be expected to undertake the following duties:
• Provide specialist scientific and policy advice to internal and external customers.
• Disseminate information on JNCC’s marine work, including preparation of peer reviewed papers and reports, updates to the relevant pages of JNCC’s website, and presentations at conferences and meetings.
• Support to the programme and team as needed, including planning, administration, project and task management, reporting and development of funding proposals.
• Manage contracts including procurement (specification, tendering and letting contracts, with support from our procurement specialists).
• Provide a technical secretariat role for internal and external working groups.
• Organise events such as meetings, workshops and webinars for internal or external participants; includes planning, logistics, facilitation and reporting.
1. Marine Fisheries Advisor - MA052, Marine Management Team (Permanent)
• Support development of fisheries measures for UK Marine Protected Areas;
• Support work to develop scientific understanding of the effects of fishing gears on marine habitats and species in both UK and international waters.
• Help to develop advice on fisheries impacts and achievement of Good Environmental Status in the marine environment.
• Participate in relevant stakeholder meetings and workshops (online and face-to-face)
2. Monitoring Marine Ecologist - MP109, Marine Monitoring Team (1 Year Fixed-Term Appointment with the possibility of extension)
• Produce monitoring reports arising from our MPA monitoring programme by undertaking multivariate statistical analysis of trends and reporting the findings;
• Contribute to ensuring that monitoring data are fit for assessment purposes, including undertaking indicator development and conducting statistical analyses in PRIMER, R and other packages as needed;
• Produce advice on monitoring benthic habitats through data collation and interpretation, to support the identification of appropriate indicators. Undertake GIS and statistical analysis, including power analysis to detect change; and
• Contributing to the improvement of the Marine Habitat Classification for Britain and Ireland and the marine part of the European habitat classification system, EUNIS.
3. Marine Protected Areas Advisor - MP019M, Marine Protected Areas Team (1 Year Fixed Term Appointment)
• Act as site lead for a range of offshore MPAs, becoming the main authority on all matters relating to their sites and a central point of contact for others within the organisation. The site lead role may include assisting monitoring and assessment of MPA features, supporting casework advice within the sites and updating both internal and external information available for the sites.
• Contribute to the work of the team to support priority work areas as required, but notably: the identification of pilot Highly Protected Marine Areas in Scottish waters and our international implementation work on MPAs under the Defra-led Ocean Country Partnership Programme.
4. Offshore Industries Adviser - ME005, Marine Management Team (Permanent)
• Provision of fast paced, evidence-based nature conservation advice to regulators and industry, including but not limited to oil and gas, renewables, aggregates, cables, marine planning and more. Both in UK seas and in some cases, overseas. Specifically:
- Reviewing environmental assessments, licensing rounds, marine plans.
- Understanding and advising on the impacts of offshore activity on protected habitats and species.
- Working across nature conservation bodies to provide joint advice, achieving consistency across the UK, identifying and addressing issues that affect our advice (e.g. scientific, procedural or legal).
- Develop and maintain relationships with key stakeholders (e.g. developers, regulators and other nature conservation bodies across the UK)
• Participate on the roster for duty officer, providing a 24/7 response service for environmental information and advice in the event of an offshore pollution incidents (this includes on-call allowance uplift payments).
5. Marine Ecosystems Scientist – EU002, Marine Ecosystems Team (Permanent)
• Fact-finding, from ad hoc and background searches, through consultation and seeking advice, to more structured reviews of ecological literature.
• Support the development of our evidence base on marine ecosystem assets, flows, services, benefits and beneficiaries, including finding, importing and updating relevant data and models where gaps need to be filled.
• Develop and test models for integration of indicators and evaluation of trade-offs between environmental targets and management scenarios
• Maintain and promote common standards and good practice guidance relevant to the assessment of marine habitats and species in the UK