The Earth experiences ‘space weather’ that impacts the planetary environment in a variety of ways. These impacts are a recognised environmental hazard, as detailed in the UK National Risk Register. A major impact arises due to the deposition of energy in the atmosphere by Joule heating whereby charged particles, under electromagnetic forcing from the solar […]
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Coral reef species are undergoing widespread mortality under increasingly frequent mass coral bleaching events, which will continue until global efforts reduce CO2 emissions. In the meantime, it is critical to enhance reef resilience and recovery processes. Overharvesting of herbivorous fishes threatens these processes and can encourage shifts towards algal-dominated reefs. Overfishing also alters the abundance […]
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Accurate estimates of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions underpin national land use policy and subsequent targets, e.g. the recent UK target for net zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, modelling of terrestrial sources of nitrous oxide (N2O) using atmospheric concentrations reveals that the bottom up greenhouse gas inventory for UK N2O emissions is either missing a […]
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Estuaries connect terrestrial and marine environments, providing one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth. Complex land-sea interactions combined with intensive land-use and land-value mean that they are at heightened risk from flooding and poor health. Worse, they are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, since sea-level rise of up to 1 m […]
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The ecological impact of artificial light at night has been a rapidly growing field of global change science in recent years. While understanding of direct lighting impacts (for example street lights) has improved dramatically, the effect of artificial skyglow (light that is scattered in the atmosphere and reflected back to the ground) on species behaviours […]
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Invasive species represent one of the most pressing threats to earth’s biodiversity. This ENVISION PhD studentship is an exciting opportunity to work at the interface of biomechanics and genomics to test timely questions in invasive species biology: What are the functional links between dispersal traits and genetic diversity in invasive species? How do dispersal traits […]
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Arctic summers are now characterized by ever-expanding areas of open water exposed by the declining sea ice. This dramatic decline has input fresh meltwater to the surface ocean and created more openings for direct exchange of heat, freshwater and momentum (i.e. wind energy input) between the ocean and atmosphere. The expected increase in wind energy […]
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Armillaria species, are devastating fungal root-rot pathogens that affect over 500 woody plant species globally. They are facultative necrotrophs that colonise and attack the cambium of living roots, necrotising the living tissue, and ultimately killing the tree before switching to a saprophytic phase to decay the dead tissue. Infection is established via rhizomorphs, exploratory organs […]
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River deltas occupy about 0.6% of the Earth’s surface area, but contain 4% of the world’s population (about 300,000,000 people). They are also frequently highly fertile, due to the capture of sediment from upstream, and are unique environments that are important for species biodiversity. At the same time they are peculiarly at risk to man-made […]
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Invasive lionfish threaten native Caribbean marine biodiversity. Lionfish predate unchecked on native fish which, unlike in the lionfish’s native Indo-Pacific, have no evolved defence. Current management relies largely on opportunistic culling by recreational SCUBA divers, yet this only provides local short-term respite because it is shallow (<30m), yet lionfish are abundant in mesophotic coral ecosystems […]
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