Past Projects

2021 Projects

Assessing the Contribution of Antarctic Peninsula Glaciers to Global Sea Level Rise

Melting of the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets contributes more than one third of global sea-level rise. One of the most rapidly changing polar regions is the Antarctic Peninsula which, during the…

Assessing the impacts of aquaculture and pesticide use in a protected tropical wetland (Loktak Lake, India)

Loktak Lake, located in Manipur, is the largest freshwater lake in NE India, declared a Ramsar site in 1990. It is divided into three main basins which have different land use practices by local popul…

Cold blood in warming winters: physiological impacts of climate change on UK reptiles

Environmental change is causing temperatures to rise across the globe – how this will affect the distribution and abundance of species is therefore an important current focus for ecologists worl…

Ecosystem functions of tropical filter-feeders under environmental

Mussels, bryozoans and sponges are sessile filter-feeders that are known to fulfil important ecosystem functions in temperate freshwater habitats, such as water clearance, nutrient cycling and promoti…

Effects of seabird nutrient inputs on the productivity of coral reef fish communities

How coral reefs can sustain their extreme biomass of large reef fishes has continued to puzzle scientists. By living fast and dying young, small, bottom-dwelling (‘cryptobenthic’) reef fishes have…

Exploiting big data to understand access to greenspace in the UK

Greenspaces provide incredible valuable benefits to people. For example, there are over 62,000 urban greenspaces in Great Britain, estimated to provide just over £130 billion to those living nearby. …

In from the cold: how are winter plankton communities changing with the climate?

Lake ecosystems host diverse communities of organisms which show great variation over seasonal, year-to-year and decadal timescales. Growing evidence demonstrates that these communities are already be…

Modelling the future of coastal soft cliffs under changing climate

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship within the NERC-ENVISION Doctoral Training Partnership with a project entitled: “Modelling the future of coastal soft cliffs under changing climate…

Quantifying drivers of human-elephant conflict in an arid savanna ecosystem

The continental-range of the African elephant has been dramatically reduced and fragmented due to the rapid expansion of human settlements and agriculture, resulting in escalating conflict over access…

Restoring for a resilient future: Woodland community assembly trajectories in the face of multiple stressors

You will be based at UKCEH Bangor and Bangor University, joining a dynamic group of forest ecosystem, climate change and air pollution researchers, based in the Environment Centre Wales. You will make…

The evolution of metabolic adaptation to environmental change

The ecological and evolutionary transitions that accompany environmental change often involve alterations in diet and accompanying morphological adaptations. These changes are abundantly well research…

The impact of climate change on the thermal ecology of cold-adapted butterflies

The project will investigate how increasing temperatures are affecting northern butterflies in the UK, and test the potential for managing habitats to promote climate change adaptation. It provides …

The Impact of Climate on Tropical Forests: A natural experiment within the Eastern Arc Mountains, Tanzania

Atmospheric CO2 is high (over 416 ppm) and rising, and the impacts of this are felt across the globe as climate change. Tropical forests (which contain ~50% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversi…

The impact of small impoundments and connectivity loss on fish distribution and abundance in river ecosystems

Rivers are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Freshwater fisheries are at risk from multiple stressors including climate change, pollutants and the presence of dams which inhibit fish mov…

The influence of groundwater and soil conditions on future flood risk of UK estuaries

The risk of flooding is changing worldwide, associated with population and socioeconomic growth, and climate change. Lowland catchments and estuaries are particularly vulnerable because of high land v…

Tracing the heat signature of Atlantic Water through the GIN seas and its impact on Arctic ice and climate.

Extreme weather such as floods, heat waves, unusually cold harsh winters are increasingly prevalent across the Northern Hemisphere. For instance, the Thames barrier, designed to prevent flooding of th…

Why are there so few C2 grasses?

The vast majority of plant species use C3 photosynthesis. However, a turbo-charged form of photosynthesis called C4 evolved independently in nearly 70 lineages and is used by our most productive food …

2020 Projects

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A New Framework for Measuring Uncertainty in Satellite Observations of Climate Change.

This project offers the exciting opportunity to develop fundamental new insight into the certainty of satellite estimates of climate change, with a focus on Earth’s polar ice sheets. The melting of …

Assessing the role of geodiversity in conserving biodiversity in agricultural Eurasian grasslands

This project assesses geodiversity-biodiversity relationships and hypothesised drivers, mainly at the Târnava Mare Natura 2000 site, Transylvania (Romania). This landscape of traditionally managed gr…

Biosphere mapping of lead pollution though time

This PhD will create a novel methodology for GIS mapping of the extent of Pb pollution through time in Central Britain, resulting in an important addition to the BGS Isotope Biosphere Domain Map. The …

Confronting the Changing Diversity Patterns of Coral Reefs

Coral reef ecosystems are in a state of change. Increasingly frequent and severe disturbances, and escalation of human interactions, are transforming many tropical coral reefs. At the same time, speci…

Constraining palaeoceanographic changes in Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC)

Palaeoceanographic studies have often focused on understanding how the North Atlantic Ocean responds to and has driven past changes in the global climate-oceanographic system. In recent years, it has …

Country, calypso or carimbó? The role of cultural value shifts in advancing Amazonian deforestation frontiers

This inter-disciplinary project addresses the intractable problem of how to reduce tropical deforestation. Current strategies such as REDD+ are failing and rooted in assumptions of rational economic d…

Deepwater gunk and slimeballs: Diversity and function of benthic microbes in West Greenland lakes

We are looking for a student with interests in Arctic science, microbial ecology and lake ecosystems. Focused on the Kangerlussuaq area of West Greenland, this project will determine the genetic diver…

Destabilisation of terrestrial ecosystems in the high Arctic by extreme winter warming

The high Arctic is warming at an alarming rate, disrupting soil carbon, nutrient and hydrological cycles. This is resulting in increased soil microbial activity with subsequent increases in nutrient a…

Drivers of tropical freshwater biodiversity: a DNA metabarcoding approach

Southeast Asian (SE-Asian) freshwater biodiversity is declining rapidly. This is particularly true for Borneo, renowned for its highly diverse and globally important biodiversity. The situation is ala…

Drought vulnerability of the date palm and its wild relatives

Understanding the mechanisms and evolution of drought tolerance in plants is crucial to support the development of drought-tolerant crops, assess the vulnerability of wild species to climate change, a…

Exploring drivers of rarity in the arable weed flora

Several iconic plant species that used to be common in cropped fields, including corncockle and corn marigold have dramatically decreased in frequency and abundance since the 1960s due to the intensif…

Fishing for parasite genomes: host-parasite co-evolution of an emerging salmonid disease

Climate change may drive the emergence of disease epidemics with severe ecological and economic consequences. Freshwater ecosystems, and their iconic inhabitants such as salmonid fish, are among the m…

Functional role of unchartered coral reef habitats in the Anthropocene

Functional role of uncharted coral reef habitats in the Anthropocene

Tropical reef-building corals are vulnerable to breakage by waves and some corals also asexually reproduce via fragmentation. Early descriptions of coral reefs noted the ability of these coral fragmen…

Herbivore-Plant-Soil microbe interactions: who is helping whom

Globally, 20-40% of crops are lost to insects, pathogens and weeds. Novel solutions to combat these biotic threats and protect crop health are urgently required, but they need to be intertwined with s…

How do birds contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistant microorganisms?

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance genes (AMR) amongst pathogenic microorganisms is one of the greatest health issues of this century. Over-use of antibiotics in treating humans and …

Impact of warm salty Indian Ocean water leakage into the South Atlantic on the Benguela Upwelling ecosystem over the last 40 years

The Benguela upwelling system supports fisheries that are key marine resources of the developing nations of South Africa and Namibia. Benguela fisheries yield has experienced large fluctuations over…

Loktak Lake, India: Assessing the impacts of aquaculture and pesticide use in a protected tropical wetland

Multi-scale modelling of invasive mosquito disease vector establishment in the UK under future climate change scenarios

Aedes albopictus, a highly invasive mosquito species and important transmission vector of dengue, zika, yellow fever, dirofilaria and chikungunya, has spread rapidly from Asia and is now established a…

Integrated impacts of transformative land-use change and climate change on grassland biodiversity, ecosystem services and land carbon uptake

Net zero, land use and climate change: what are the ecosystem consequences?

Why this project is important: Ensuring grasslands, which cover 40% of the UK, provide a suite of ecosystem goods and services and store natural capital is critical for societal needs. However, new un…

Rare, extreme rainfall events dominate nitrous oxide emissions from hyper arid deserts (AtacamaN20)

The Atacama Desert is the oldest and driest desert on earth. It is also one of the most hostile environments for microbial life on Earth due to its hyper arid moisture regime, thermal extremes, high c…

Seeing into the subsurface – next generation geophysical imaging for environmental and engineering hazard monitoring

Are you looking to transfer your experience of computational methods to tackling some important Earth science problems? We are interested in imaging the shallow subsurface (the top 100m of the Ear…

Stalagmite capture of groundwater nitrogen

The world’s population relies on using nitrogen to boost crop yields and ensure sufficient food production. However, application of nitrogen fertilizer in excess of that taken up by plants and anima…

The ecological and evolutionary significance of functional variation in mitochondria in a wild animal

In this multidisciplinary, international project you will address novel and exciting questions about the ecological and evolutionary consequences of mitochondrial variation in wild animals. You will c…

The evolution of mimicry in a changing world: how shifting bumblebee communities affect selection on a colour-polymorphic hoverfly

Complex species interactions make the impacts of global environmental change difficult to foresee. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary relationships between species, and the way that the fit…

The impact of ozone and climate change on floral VOC signalling in beans, with a focus on subsistence agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Bean yields are significantly affected by pollinator visitation, a visitation which can be heavily influenced by the release of floral volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Ozone pollution and climate ch…

The mysterious microbial ecosystem beneath our feet: Unravelling groundwater microbiology

Groundwater constitutes 99% of accessible freshwater on the planet and is a vital resource for public water supply in the UK. It contains a little-studied indigenous microbial ecosystem responsible fo…

The War-torn Woodlands of Britain: Reconstructing the ecological impacts of historical disturbance

We seek a numerate, enthusiastic student with a passion for understanding how woodland habitats have been shaped by human activity past and present. The proposed research provides a unique opportunity…

UK air pollution futures and their health impacts

Poor air quality is the number one environmental health threat in the UK, contributing to ~30,000 deaths per year, while also exacerbating several health conditions. Air quality depends on the amount …

Understanding and monitoring insect pest dispersal within a changing environment

This exciting PhD project will work at the cutting edge of mathematical and statistical sciences to deliver automatic insect pest detection. Whilst the focus is on developing and applying data science…

Understanding how habitat quality, insect abundance and aquatic subsidies impact population change in a rapidly declining bird

Global declines in migrant bird populations are a major threat to the world’s ecosystems. Migrants provide vital ecosystem services at large spatial scales, and avian population trends are key indic…

Understanding responses of coastal seabirds to local and daily-scale meteorological variation

Weather patterns are changing across the globe, and these changes may affect populations of animals. For coastal seabirds, it seems likely that associated changes in precipitation levels and wind char…

Unhappy Bedfellows? Interactions between the invasive species Sargassum muticum and Threatened seagrass beds (Zostera spp).

Successful invasive species often escape top-down pressure in the early stages of invasion. However, emerging evidence suggests that over time local animal consumers can adapt to control and moderate …

Urban greenspace – what attributes determine wellbeing?

Stress is ubiquitous in UK society (85% of which is urban). However, access to green space is correlated with better quality of life, and can actively reduce levels of stress hormones, such as cortiso…

Using ecological theory and data to evaluate and improve industry’s measurement of Biodiversity Net Gain

Growing awareness of the rapid rate of biodiversity loss, and the ultimate impacts on human wellbeing, has resulted in increasing policy commitments that infrastructure development should deliver a Ne…

A New Framework for Measuring Uncertainty in Satellite Observations of Climate Change

Abundance within species’ ranges: understanding species’ responses to environmental change

Accelerated climate change and environmental degradation make it necessary to improve our understanding of, and ability to predict, species’ responses to environmental change. The availability of la…

Adapting to extreme environments: Hybridisation and the evolution of contemporary heavy metal tolerance

Climate change, urbanisation and exploitation of natural resources increasingly alter the environment, posing significant challenges for plants and animals. We have a poor understanding of how organis…

Aerodynamic invasions: does the biomechanics of flight affect dispersal and genetic diversity in invasive species?

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…

Aliens in the twilight zone: using robots to study and manage invasive lionfish on Caribbean mesophotic coral ecosystems

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 manag…

Angry damsels: do species interactions after overfishing enhance or inhibit coral reef recovery?

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 cr…

Arctic sea-ice decline: An opening for more wind energy input to the ocean?

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 openi…

Artificial skyglow impacts on the chronobiology of marine organisms

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)…

Clean air for all? Air pollution, deprivation and health

Poor outdoor air quality, particularly that associated with high concentrations of very fine particles (PM2.5) has been identified globally as a major cause of early mortality. In the UK, DEFRA have i…

Delta dynamics: lessons from the Chao Phraya

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 sedi…

Development of robust inhalation simulation procedures for measuring exposure to potentially harmful elements from soil particulates

Human exposure to soil-dust can be climate driven in that airborne particulates can be transported (and deposited great distances from the point of origin) through the atmosphere by weather and climat…

Diversity and evolution of facultative and constitutive C4 photosynthesis in sedges

Plants have evolved different versions of photosynthesis to maintain efficiency under diverse environmental conditions. While the vast majority of plants use C3 photosynthesis, some plants evolved a t…

Drinking water ponds in southern Bangladesh: blending traditional and scientific management approaches

We are looking for a student with strong interests in freshwater sciences and complex development problems to work with a large transdisciplinary international team. Bangladesh has a profound drinking…

Drivers of tropical freshwater biodiversity: a DNA metabarcoding approach

We are looking for a versatile student with a keen interest in tropical freshwater ecology and conservation, and willing to undertake exciting molecular analyses to define biodiversity. This project w…

Environmental change, monsoon variability and human impact in Southeast Asia

We seek an excellent student to investigate environmental change, monsoon variability, and human impact in a Southeast Asian tropical lake. Southeast Asia is a critical zone for the global hydrologica…

Extreme weather events exacerbate nitrous oxide emissions from soil (Extreme-N2O)

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, modellin…

Filling the emissions gap: Investigating the dynamic contribution of soil volatile organic compounds to temperate and tropical forest atmospheres

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) disrupt the chemical equilibrium of the atmosphere causing increased formation of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. The majority of these VOCs are known to origina…

Floral Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) signalling in response to air pollution and climate change

Up to 88% of flowering plant species depend on insect pollinators. Although flowers and their visual cues are known to be important for pollinators, more recently it has been shown that VOCs are also …

Improving UK air quality forecasts during heatwaves

Poor air quality is a major global health concern affecting all industrialised nations and virtually all of society. Worldwide, ~3 million deaths are attributable to air pollution annually (World Heal…

Landslide early warning: developing novel geophysical monitoring approaches to see inside unstable slopes

Slope instability is responsible for considerable social and economic harm. In the UK, impacts are principally economic, through damage and disruption to critical infrastructure (e.g. railways, flood …

Long distance drone tracking of key pollinators in agricultural and natural landscapes

Many plant species, including numerous agricultural ones, depend on pollinator services; yet agricultural intensification and urbanisation have caused habitat loss and fragmentation, leading to substa…

Maya collapse: solar irradiance and drought

The potential role of changes in total solar irradiance (TSI) (sun spots) in driving climatic variability has been widely cited and hotly debated. This is particularly true in the tropical Americas, w…

Nitrogen controls on ecosystem functioning in neotropical dry forests

Global agriculture is rapidly expanding in response to the growing demand for food, with ‘agricultural frontiers’, such as dry and fertile lands of the Gran Chaco in South America contributing to …

Pathways to Realistic Impact Modelling in Estuarine Areas (PRIMEA)

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…

Persistent organic pollutant futures: making 21st century projections of POPs concentrations and risks in British soils

This project will use cutting edge projections of the future state of society to predict how pollution and its impacts may change across Britain in the 21st century. Working alongside a team of enviro…

Reducing Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions – RAGGE

Nitrogen inputs into agricultural systems are an essential requirement for healthy, high yielding crop production, but they can also result in the release of excess N either by leaching or by emission…

Rewilding trajectories: how important are the early years?

Would you like to earn a PhD doing research at the cutting edge of biodiversity, ecosystem services, environmental genomics and land-use change? We are looking for an enthusiastic, numerate student wi…

Savanna Soil Carbon: investigating biological climate resilience

Savanna ecosystems occupy 20% of the Earth’s land surface and are characterized by open canopied mixed woodland with a grassy understorey and seasonal rainfall in tropical or sub-tropical regions. T…

Soil ecological function in a 163 year grassland experiment

The need to produce healthy and food sustainably is reliant on healthy soil. This is certainly true of grassland ecosystems on which over half of the people of the Earth rely for their livelihoods and…

Soil microbes to mitigate climate change

Human populations are expected to increase by 50% to 9 billion by 2050 as climate change continues. The global challenge is to manage terrestrial ecosystems sustainably whilst mitigating climate chang…

Space weather at mid-latitudes: climatology, dynamics and drivers of atmospheric Joule heating

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…

The evolution of mimicry in a changing world: how shifting bumblebee communities affect selection on a colour-polymorphic hoverfly

Tracing the Anthropocene, its history and hazards

You have probably heard of the Anthropocene? But, what is it and when did it actually begin? Scientists are certainly still arguing over the second of these questions. The most recent epoch in Earth�…

Understanding current and future impacts of public water supply on macronutrient cycles around the world

Globally, huge investment is made in infrastructure to obtain, process and distribute clean water to human society. These public water supply (PWS) processes also alter the movement of a wide range of…

Understanding the behaviour, fate and environmental risk of microplastics in the plant-soil system

Nature of the problem: Contamination of the terrestrial, freshwater and marine biosphere by microplastics is now widely recognised as one of the world’s greatest pollution threats. Microplastics (pl…

Urban nature-based solutions, are there scale-dependent thresholds?

This multi-disciplinary PhD will study urban green space and benefits at a range of scales, to tackle critical questions in urban ecosystem services research: whether greenspace benefits demonstrate n…

What lurks beneath: unravelling the chemically-guided ecological interactions of Armillaria fungi, a devastating group of subterranean forest pathogens

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, …

Ancient DNA for palaeoecology and freshwater conservation

We require a versatile student who is comfortable working with “mud and molecules” for a project that aims to develop and apply the use of ancient DNA in lake sediments (sedDNA). Traces of DNA p…

Being behind the times? Assessing the liana-induced impact on forest phenology using a multispectral Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)

Tropical forests are a major global carbon sink and account for a third of the carbon fixed globally by photosynthesis. Recent research shows that these forests are changing, including increases in …

Change in arctic and alpine plant communities: the roles of climate and geodiversity

Understanding variation and change in biodiversity as a consequence of changing environments is one of today’s main scientific challenges. One problem is that recent climate change has tended to b…

Climate change impacts on cold-adapted butterflies: discovering the mechanisms and testing potential mitigation approaches

Cold-adapted species, including those restricted to mountains, are highly vulnerable to climate change. For UK butterflies, cold-adapted species are similarly threatened by climate change-mediated d…

Complementary strategies for the sustainable management of an invasive pest in Africa

In January 2016, the first reports of a new invasive pest was received in Africa. In less than two years, the new pest – the Fall armworm, Spodoptera frugiperda – had spread to most countries (&…

Dispersal strategies and space use in pollinating bees

Quantifying dispersal ability and how organisms navigate through the environment is an essential step required to predict how individual species will cope with land use changes. There is a growing d…

Do biogenic VOCs protect plant productivity under multiple environmental stress?

With the global population projected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, food security is a growing concern in many world regions. Rising temperatures, changes in precipitation and deteriorating air…

Effects of electromagnetic noise on the orientation of migratory birds

Animals face many challenges as increased urbanization impacts their ability to survive and reproduce. Nowhere is this more evident than in migratory birds. Throughout Europe evidence indicates that…

Fish in a biogeochemical barrel: taking aim at the evolutionary consequences of nutrient colimitation in freshwater

**The deadline for applications for this project only is the 15th December 2017** Fish in a biogeochemical barrel: taking aim at the evolutionary consequences of nutrient colimitation in freshwater. …

$Fracking magma: field and experimental investigation of hydrofracture in volcanic systems$

Fracking magma: field and experimental investigation of hydrofracture in volcanic systems

Tuffisite veins are particle-filled hydraulic fractures formed around and within volcanic conduits, which are opened by and provide transient pathways for flow of pressurised magmatic fluids. Tuffis…

From Rivers to Reservoirs: reconstructing downstream sediment transport to the Red River Delta, Vietnam

The Red River in Vietnam supports 20 million inhabitants, includes a major rice-growing region, the mega-city of Hanoi and a range of industries each of which have expanded in recent decades. The Re…

Ice-ocean interaction: effects of climate change on Antarctic ice-shelf dynamics

In summer 2017 the Larsen C ice-shelf in Antarctica calved a 6000 km2 iceberg, and the Halley research station closed over winter 2017 due to nearby crevasses opening up, potentially calving another…

Impact of coral reef fish personalities on species persistence under environmental change

Coral reefs are undergoing substantial change around the world as mass coral bleaching and other disturbance events disrupt ecological communities. Animal behaviour is thought to be a crucial mechan…

Impact of structure and microbial diversity on soil organic carbon under land use change

Applications are invited for a PhD by Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Nottingham University and Rothamsted Research on soil organic carbon stabilization. Climate change is now at the heart of scie…

Liquid water and Antarctic ice sheet stability

Our current best estimates suggest that enough ice could be lost from Antarctica by the end of this century to contribute over a metre to global sea level if current rates of climate change are not cu…

Living with human disturbance: conservation physiology of a wild African primate

In a world of increasing anthropogenic influence, understanding how rare and specialised species adapt to human-modified landscapes is essential for conservation. Primates face many threats includin…

Long distance drone tracking of key pollinators in agricultural and natural landscapes

Machine learning models of organic soil contaminant bioavailability for the sustainable redevelopment of post-industrial brownfields

This CASE PhD studentship will use a combination of organic geochemistry and data-driven modelling to elucidate the factors responsible for the skin absorption of hazardous organic chemicals in contam…

Metabolic constraints arising from the loss of organic carbon and structure from soils.

The “4‰ Soils for Food Security and Climate” agreement has focussed regulators’ and scientists’ minds alike on the role that carbon plays in fertility and global climate change. Organic ca…

Modelling the impact of agri-environment scheme options on soil and vegetation

Would you like to earn a PhD doing research at the cutting edge of biodiversity, ecosystem services, land-use change and agriculture? Would you like to produce novel science that could help shape la…

Next generation landscape mapping: machine learning and big data methods for exploiting earth observation data

This is an exciting opportunity to explore machine learning and big data methods, in combination with earth observation data, to extract information on land cover, landscape features and habitat condi…

All enquiries to Dr Andrew Jarvis (a.jarvis@lancs.ac.uk)

Optimal Resilience in Distribution Networks

In both nature and society, distribution networks are fundamental, facilitating the exchange of materials, energy and information. As systems evolve, these networks become complex leading to fragile s…

Predicting Sediment Dynamics in Rivers Infested with Invasive Crayfish

Predicting when sediment will move in a river is fundamental to successful management of that river, which includes coping with floods, maintaining navigation, and preventing loss of banks through e…

Pushing the limits: Life in extreme desert environments

Hyper-arid hot deserts experience some of the most severe climatic conditions on Earth, and are often used to understand the potential for life on exoplanets such as Mars. In addition, studying the …

Quantification of the dermal absorption of organic soil contaminants present for human health risk assessment of post-industrial brownfield land

This CASE PhD studentship is a unique opportunity to make significant advances in the field of organic geochemistry and risk-based land management of post-industrial brownfield land. Your research wil…

Quantifying the effects of deer on woodland structure in a human-altered landscape

The last century has seen a rapid increase in populations of deer species across Europe due to altered land use, improved wildlife management, reduced predation and more favourable climatic conditio…

Reconstructing 2000 years of hydrological change in Africa – implications for future climate scenarios

Lake systems in Africa provide drinking water to some of Earth’s fastest growing and most vulnerable human populations. In response to climatic and anthropogenic pressure, such as land-use changes…

Species4Services – Which Species and Traits Best Indicate Ecosystem Services?

*******Application deadline – Friday 29th June 2018******* Background: Ecosystem services (ES; the goods humans get from nature) such as crop production, carbon capture and livestock grazing are…

Sustainable grazing and mountain soils; safeguarding water provision through soil functions and resilience

Can our upland landscapes provide clean drinking water, store carbon, maintain biodiversity, act as a platform for leisure activities and provide a rural economy around grazing all whilst coping wit…

Taking the P in the future: new technologies for phosphorus capture from wastewater

The project: Phosphorus is central to globally-significant challenges, including the need for sustainable approaches to reduce nutrient enrichment within aquatic ecosystems. This project will develo…

The greening of the Arctic Ocean: Are increased nutrient fluxes responsible?

This exciting project, which is jointly supervised by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool and Bangor University, focuses on a key question in Climate Change Science; i.e. is …

The impact of mixing on the production of methane by lakes and its loss to the atmosphere

Methane (CH4) emissions are far more devastating to global climate than carbon dioxide as CH4 is 21-times more potent a greenhouse gas on a per molecule basis. The International Panel for Climate Ch…

The Impact of Trace Metal Contaminants on Environmental and Animal Health: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach

This project will explore the mobilisation and bioaccumulation of heavy metal contaminants from historic mine waste from old mine sites in Wales, and their impact on wildlife health. This is a uniqu…

The influence of extreme events in the long-term evolution of mixed gravel/sand barrier beaches

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship within the NERC-ENVISION Doctoral Training Partnership with a project entitled: “The influence of extreme events in the longterm evolution of mix…

The role of moss mats on the resilience of soil to climate change

We are seeking an enthusiastic PhD student to work as part of our interdisciplinary team based at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Bangor with registration at Bangor University. You will work…

Using western boundary currents to generate electricity: resource characterisation, technical & practical constraints

To reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, it is crucial that we continue to explore renewable energy resources and technologies. It is possible to convert the kinetic energy that resides in ocean curr…

What lies beneath: biofilm fingerprints for nutrient inputs to rivers

The project: Changes in the availability of nitrogen and carbon within rivers, for example associated with anthropogenic inputs from sources such as fertilisers or wastewater, have profound effects …

What lies beneath: Resolving fundamental controls on the stable oxygen isotope composition of phosphate in soils

Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for food production but rock phosphate reserves are non-renewable and set to become increasingly scarce, making phosphorus critical for global food security. T…

A multi-scale assessment of the regrowth potential of secondary forests in the Brazilian Amazon

Now that humanity has cleared or damaged at least three-quarters of the world’s primary forests, the regrowth of tropical forests plays a key role in global biogeochemical cycles, climate regulation…

Assessing the role of fungus-mediated plant-soil feedbacks during secondary succession of tropical forests

Secondary forests are increasingly prominent features in tropical landscapes and the importance for the restoration of the original hyperdiverse mature forests they replace is widely recognized. None-…

Bubbles rising through rocky cracks

This project will explore the coalescence and break up of bubbles as they emerge through cracks in the earth’s crust. This is truly interdisciplinary work, where you will define your experiments and…

Characterising and predicting the impact of infection with deformed wing virus (DWV) on honey bees and bumble bees.

In social insects, such as pollinators, infectious diseases challenge the survival and effective function of both the individual and the entire colony. While pests and pathogens have been implicated i…

Coastal flood mitigation potential of artificial tidal lagoons

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship within the NERC-ENVISION Doctoral Training Partnership with a project entitled: “Coastal flood mitigation potential of artificial tidal lagoonsR…

Coupled hydrogeophysical and geomechanical modelling of slope stability for improved early warning of landslides

There is a growing interest in linking hydrogeological and geomechanical models to improve understanding of landslide failure processes, but progress has been limited by an inability to provide high s…

Demographic consequences of variation in individual foraging strategies of northern fulmars

Recent advancements in telemetry technology has dramatically enhanced our understanding of movement ecology, and generated novel opportunities for exploring how animals are responding to a rapidly cha…

Developing environmentally sustainable forestry value chains

Forests play a key role in climate regulation, water purification and biodiversity conservation, whilst providing renewable wood-based resources critical for the circular economy. Forest cover in the …

Evolutionary dynamics in changing environments: oceanic islands as natural experiments

Oceanic islands provide replicated ‘natural experiments’ that can be harnessed to disentangle general evolutionary patterns from unique evolutionary outcomes. In particular, high-altitude oceanic …

Exploring the ecology of airborne pollen biodiversity using environmental DNA analysis and identifying links to hay fever

In addition to providing benefits to society, biodiversity also brings costs. The aerial biosphere includes ecologically complex mixtures of pollens that negatively affect human health. Almost a quart…

Functional changes in coral reef marine protected areas

Ecology has traditionally assessed communities based on species identity, but increasingly the traits of those species are being assessed instead, to measure functional diversity. By focussing on trai…

Geospatial modelling the spread of antimicrobial resistance in the environment

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global challenge. It is estimated that globally 700,000 human deaths per year are due to AMR, predicted to rise to 10 million by 2050. While much research is …

Growing your cake and eating it: a model-based investigation of trade-offs in biodiversity and potential ecosystem service supply across Britain

Britain, in common with many other parts of the globe, faces the challenge of managing its land for multiple ends in the face of a rising population and likely climate warming. Thus new science is nee…

How long does it take for recovery of soil processes from excess nitrogen deposition?

The past 60 years have seen dramatic changes in the amount of atmospheric pollutants being deposited on semi-natural habitats. Between 1960 and 1990, industrialisation and the intensification of agric…

Ice-ocean interactions: effects of climate change on Antarctic ice-shelf dynamics

The Antarctic Ice Sheet is losing ice at a rapid rate. As these large volumes of ice melt, they can disrupt key pathways in the Earth System, including changing ocean heat transports and ocean circula…

Impact of ozone on nitrogen dynamics of grassland vegetation

Ozone pollution has negative effects on many species of semi-natural vegetation, and grasslands have been shown to be particularly sensitive. Nitrogen deposition is also a threat to vegetation and can…

Interactions between migration and disease in an invasive crop pest

Many insect pests have the ability to migrate vast distances in remarkably short periods of time. This has significant implications with regards to their geographical spread and the transmission of th…

Learning from the landscape: can the patch dynamics of reef communities guide their conservation and spatial management?

The very presence of engineering species within a landscape promotes high levels of biodiversity and ecosystem goods/services. However, their loss and degradation is one of the most significant driver…

Lignin as a tracer for terrestrial vegetation across the river-estuarine-coastal continuum

Biogeochemical processes in rivers, estuaries and coastal seas play key roles in the global carbon C cycle by controlling the flux of material from land to ocean. It has been estimated that as little …

Measurement and modelling human dermal bioavailability of potentially harmful organic soil contaminants

This PhD studentship presents a unique opportunity in the fields of organic geochemistry and risk-based land management. The student will optimise in vitro methods to measure the dermal bioavailabilit…

Measuring and modelling the dermal bioavailability of organic soil contaminants for human health risk assessment of contaminated land

This industrial CASE studentship is a unique opportunity to develop innovative science in the field of organic geochemistry and risk-based land management of post-industrial brownfield sites affected …

Microbial survival in stressed environments

Environmental change due to human activities can have devastating impacts on microbial activities that are essential to the earth’s ecosystem functions. Microbial adaptations to stresses have been d…

Modelling the influence of aquatic plants on rivers’ flood conveyance capacity

This project will address the controversial and highly topical question of how we ensure that rivers do as good a job as possible of transporting water and thus reducing flood risk, whilst at the same…

Modelling thermal safety margins of animals worldwide under climate and land use change: past, present and future

This project will investigate the effects of joint climate and land cover change on the thermal vulnerability of animals at a global scale. While rising global temperatures are predicted to reduce the…

Novel high resolution surveying of fine sediment throughout large river cross sections; supporting improved flux estimation and habitat assessment.

Being able to accurately quantify the transport of fine sediment (sand particles and finer) in rivers is hugely important for many reasons, for example because it is a major mode of pollution transpor…

Quantifying carbon change in afforested soils

Deforestation is a major global driver of soil carbon loss. Soil carbon is central to ecosystem functioning including the regulation of climate change, and quantifying the effects of deforestation on …

Reconstructing 2000 years of hydrological change in Africa – implications for future climate scenarios

Tropical lakes systems provide vital ecosystem services to some of Earth’s fastest growing and most vulnerable human populations, but in response to climatic and anthropogenic pressure, the latter c…

Rip current and density driven dispersal of nearshore contaminants

Scientific background: Rip currents interact with density-driven freshwater plumes along the coast to mix and disperse contaminants from fluvial discharge into the shelf-sea where they impact the envi…

Sunny waters: meeting our energy, water and climate mitigation needs with floating solar

By SolarWriter (Own work), cropped [CC BY-SA 3.0] What it’s about? Supplying sufficient energy to meet rising demands whilst transitioning to low carbon sources to avoid dangerous climate change is …

Taking the P in the future: new technologies for phosphorus capture from wastewater

Phosphorus is an element at the heart of globally-significant challenges, in particular the need to identify sustainable approaches that are able to reduce nutrient enrichment within aquatic ecosystem…

Testing climatic causes of historical plague outbreaks using experimental microbiology and palaeobiogeographical modelling

Climate change poses many risks to human health and historical insights can enhance understanding of human vulnerabilities and inform potential consequences of future climate change on the spread of d…

The impact of mixing on the production of methane by lakes and its loss to the atmosphere

Methane (CH4) emissions are far more devastating to global climate than carbon dioxide as it is 21-times more potent a greenhouse gas on a per molecule basis. The International Panel for Climate Chang…

The impact of piscivorous birds on freshwater fisheries

Many freshwater fisheries of ecological and economic importance are in decline, while populations of piscivorous (fish-eating) birds such as goosanders and cormorants are increasing. This has led to g…

The impact of trace metal contaminants on environmental and animal health: a multi-disciplinary approach

The role of supraglacial lakes in ice sheet change and sea level rise

Every summer, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets develop a rash of supraglacial lakes around their edges. When they grow large enough, the water they contain can drain into the ice beneath which c…

Understanding coastal vulnerability in an uncertain world

Sea-level rise and enhanced storminess, driven by climate change, is greatly increasing coastal vulnerability and the impacts of coastal recession worldwide. Although coastal cliffs provide valuable n…

Understanding long term climate and atmospheric composition change over Antarctica

Air bubbles trapped in the ice of the Earth’s cold regions provide a unique, fascinating and long term record of atmospheric composition. Ice-core records of reactive gases are a relatively recent i…

Using environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis to explore aerial pollen communities and identify links to hay fever

Bioaerosols consist of biota such as pollen, fungal spores, bacteria and viruses and include plant allergens that negatively affect human health. Almost a quarter of people display allergic reactions …

Widening our view of the reef: the landscape ecology of disturbance and recovery on Pacific coral reefs

Satellites and other high-resolution imaging techniques have enabled landscape ecologists to explore the spatial ecology of terrestrial biological communities, such as forests, for decades. The same o…

Working with natural processes to restore lake habitats

The deterioration in water quality across the world over recent decades as a result of nutrient pollution is now a huge environmental problem. The need to restore the water quality of lakes is stimula…

Adaptation of microorganisms to stresses in diverse environments

Environmental change and perturbation due to human activities can have devastating impacts on microbial activities like biogeochemical cycling that are essential to the earth’s ecosystem functions. …

An interdisciplinary approach to understanding predator modification of prey behaviour

Predation has a fundamental role in determining the structure, dynamics and functioning of natural ecosystems. Predators don’t just consume prey – they scare them – and hence alter their behavio…

Are land-use decisions of African elephants based on environmental geochemistry?

This project will explore the role of environmental geochemistry in land use decisions by wild African elephants. This is a unique, interdisciplinary project involving environmental geochemistry, plan…

Assessing the sustainability of freshwater aquaculture in the Philippines using palaeolimnology

We require a motivated, curious and independent student with interests in lake water quality and environmental change in the tropics to apply for our studentship investigating the impacts of aquacultu…

Atmosphere-biosphere interactions: UV, ozone and the earth system

Good environmental policy has to be founded on high-quality environmental science, but delivering the research needed by policy makers can be a challenge. The Montreal protocol is widely held to be th…

Biological signals of the island mass effect

Coral reefs are ocean oases, supporting immense diversity and providing fisheries for small island nations. These important ecosystems are under threat from local anthropogenic impacts and global clim…

Capturing ecosystem service delivery from coral reefs

Coral reefs house exceptional biodiversity, and provide food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of people across the tropics. The full range of benefits people gain from coral reefs can be termed…

Detecting and understanding the impact of environmental change on plants across multiple spatial, temporal and biodiversity scales

The failure of the Rio Convention to halt the loss of global biodiversity resulted in the new Aichi Target: “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosyst…

Far-field implications of future sea ice extent on the wave climate

The earth’s oceans and atmosphere are warming, with the volume of snow and ice diminishing. Arctic temperatures have warmed at twice the global rate, with increasing inter-annual variability of sea-…

Fluid-rock interaction at the magma-geothermal interface

The accidental drilling into rhyolitic magma at Krafla volcano, Iceland in 2009 has opened exciting possibilities for research that could transform our ability to detect stored magma, whilst potential…

From morphology to microbiome: integrated common garden-genomic studies in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

Major advances in our understanding of how microbiota contribute to the living world have resulted from genomic advances. So-called second-generation sequencing now allows high throughput and cost-eff…

Ice enrichment of chemical pollutants: a significant phenomenon in a warmer Arctic

Currently there is an array of persistent organic pollutants that undergo long-range transport in air and seawater and are present in the Earth’s Polar Regions. These chemicals, arising from industr…

Impact of geochemical alteration on rock mechanical characteristics in geologic seals capping CO2 storage reservoirs

In the transition stage towards a dominant use of renewable clean energy, the emission of greenhouse gases is currently mitigated by capture and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main greenh…

Investigating tectonic-climate interactions using sedimentary records in the Tarim Basin, China

Researching crustal deformation processes and the degree of their proposed coupling with climate is the focus of this research, using the type example of India-Asia collision and Himalayan-Tibet evolu…

Investigating the mechanisms behind moth declines: plants, landscape, pollution and climate

This is an exciting opportunity to use ecology-driven science to understand why moths are in such dramatic decline and to offer solutions that can reverse these destabilising trends. The project will …

Lignin as a tracer for terrestrial vegetation across the river-estuarine-coastal continuum

Modelling microscale resource use in soil

Soil hosts a quarter of the planet’s biodiversity and represents one of the most complex ecosystems on Earth. Understanding how soils function and respond to natural and anthropogenic perturbation i…

Modelling systems of natural and engineered beaches

Coastal erosion and flooding are global environmental and economic threats. The safety of coastal communities is of paramount importance in the U.K., given the relevance of these areas for the economy…

Modelling the impact of agri-environment schemes on plant communities and soils

Would you like to earn a PhD doing research at the cutting edge of biodiversity, ecosystem services, land-use change and agriculture? We are looking for an enthusiastic, numerate student with a passio…

New computational inversion methods for geoelectrical imaging of groundwater changes in unstable slopes

This project aims to develop new geophysical data processing techniques for imaging groundwater changes within unstable slopes (e.g. natural landslides and vulnerable earthworks). Conventional monitor…

Novel imaging approaches to track rhizosphere carbon flow

Rhizosphere microbes are key players in the carbon transformations underlying the generation and sustenance of soil organic matter. Recent evidence suggests that the production of stable soil organic …

Pollen forecast 2020: using DNA metabarcoding to assess aerial pollen mixtures and identify linkages to hay fever

Approximately 20% of people display allergic reactions to combinations of tree and grass pollen causing symptoms ranging from discomfort (e.g. hay fever) to respiratory complications (e.g. asthma), wi…

Proxy-data climate-model comparisons using lake-isotope records of the last 2000 years

This project brings together the paleoclimate data and modelling communities to test ways of comparing data on past climate change with modelled scenarios of that climate. The studentship will involve…

Quantifying the function of mycorrhizal associations under altered resource availability

Why is this research exciting? The relationship between plants and mycorrhizal fungi is central to the maintenance of plant growth and ecosystem productivity worldwide. Mycorrhizal fungi also play an …

Risks to global water resources from geoengineering the climate with solar radiation management

Global warming poses grave risks for society and ecosystems. To date, mitigation efforts have been insufficient to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from continuing to rise. Solar radiation management …

Role of dark septate endophytes and ericoid mycorrhiza in ecosystem resilience to chronic drought

Global circulation models predict that severe and widespread drought will occur throughout Europe. Soil is the largest carbon pool of the terrestrial biosphere and is an ofter-overlooked carbon pool t…

Spatial and temporal patterns of liana success in Malaysia

Tropical forests are a major global carbon sink and account for a third of the carbon fixed globally by photosynthesis. Recent research in South America shows that these forests are changing, includin…

The dynamics of “ness” sediment spits

We mostly enjoy the coast by visiting the beach, which, apart from the waves and tides, can seem quite static. Viewed from the air, however, the coastline is dynamic and complex, exhibiting many curio…

The regrowth of tropical forests: remote sensing functional traits of the forest succession

Now that humanity has cleared or damaged at least three-quarters of the world’s primary forests, the regrowth of tropical forests play a key role in global biogeochemical cycles and climate. For exa…

Tracking trends in upper ocean mixing around Antarctica

In the last decade, polar regions have seen rapid climate change. From the sea ice loss and impact on polar bears in the Arctic to rising Antarctic sea level and temperatures and the calving of contin…

Understanding population declines in Afro-Palearctic migrant birds

The decline of Afro-Palearctic migrant bird populations is a major challenge facing European biodiversity. Avian population trends are important indicators of environmental change and used by the UK g…

Whole genome metagenomics to determine land use effects on soil ecosystem services

Alongside being a media for plant growth soils provide many other essential ecosystem services, such as: storing carbon, regulating greenhouse gases, recycling nutrients, buffering pollutants and puri…

Atmosphere-biosphere interactions: UV, ozone and the Earth system

Atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the last greenhouse

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that evidence for global warming is unequivocal and is very likely anthropogenic in origin. However, climate change is not solely anthropogenic …

Behaviour, morphology and genetics of cichlid fish undergoing ecological speciation

We are seeking a PhD student to work as part of an interdisciplinary team, based at Bangor University, with collaborators in the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge. The project will focus on charac…

Causes and consequences of immune variation in rodents

The norm is to be exposed to a wide range of infectious organisms and most wild animals are infected with a wide range of parasites. Yet in modern societies we humans are infected with relatively few …

Changing patterns of insect migration studied with a network of weather radars

Long-range insect migration occurs on an enormous scale and provides huge costs and benefits to agricultural ecosystems. Insect population dynamics and migration phenology are both strongly influenced…

Characterisation of iron bioavailability from African soils

We have recently found convincing evidence that soil dust contamination of food is an important (non-haem) dietary source of iron in several sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. In rural Malawi, compo…

Characterizing behaviour of gases in shale reservoirs

With increasing energy prices and advances in drilling and hydraulic rock fracturing (‘fracking’) technology, shale gas has radically changed the energy landscape over the world. However, knowledg…

Crowdsourcing tree failure information to generate a step-change in risk assessment

When storms cause trees to break or become uprooted they can be responsible for loss of lives, destruction of buildings/infrastructure and disruption to transport, energy and communications networks. …

Early warning of landslide events using computer vision and geophysical image analysis

Many cuttings and embankments within the UK transport and utilities infrastructure networks were constructed more than 100 years ago and were poorly engineered. Consequently many of these structures a…

Ecological tipping points in mangrove ecosystems

Mangroves provide a wide variety of ecosystem services to some of the poorest people on the planet. Under natural conditions, mangroves can persist in an incredibly improbable edaphic (“soil”) env…

Ecosystem climate feedbacks in a CO2 rich world

This project investigates how increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration impacts on greenhouse gas release from wetlands which provides an important feedback on the global climate. Today natural wetland…

Glacial sculpting and post-glacial drowning of the Celtic Sea

You will reconstruct different landform assemblages from geophysical and sedimentological data, revealing how landscapes have evolved offshore the UK and Ireland from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to…

Imaging the role of aggregate structure on soil hysteresis

Soil aggregates, essentially the building blocks from which soils are composed, control many soil properties on which our understanding of many of the major challenges facing society depend; how much …

Investigating Bering Sea oceanographic controls on the Milankovitch orbital cycle climatic shift during the middle Pleistocene

Collaborative Awards in Science and Engineering (CASE) sponsorship secured with BGS. “The transition of Earth’s glacial-interglacial cycles from 40 kyr to 100 kyr periodicity during the middle…

Investigating the role of soil microbes and rhizodeposition in carbon cycling and long-term C sequestration of forest ecosystems

Forests’ ecosystems and their soils represent the largest reservoir of organic carbon (C) in terrestrial ecosystems. The belowground processes of forests mediate many key biogeochemical processe…

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2017 Projects