Paid summer placement opportunity
A funded opportunity is available for an undergraduate student (subject to eligibility, see below) to be part of CEH research during the summer 2017. The opportunity will focus on assessing the threat to selected staple African food crops from potential uptake of ozone pollution using the ozone exposure facility (http://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/research-facility/solardomes-and-ozone-field-release-system) at CEH Bangor. This project will:
- Make measurements of stomatal fluxes of water vapour (as a surrogate for ozone fluxes) to plant leaves using a porometer under different climatic conditions to enable a model of stomatal ozone uptake (DO3SE, https://www.sei-international.org/do3se) to be parameterized for these crops
- Use these parameterizations to calculate the total stomatal uptake of ozone by the crops over the growing season.
- Measure photosynthesis under standard light and temperature conditions to quantify how ozone decreases the photosynthetic capacity of the plants, and whether some crops/varieties are more sensitive to ozone pollution than others.
- Relate these two processes (stomatal ozone uptake and photosynthetic capacity) to yield loss of these crops.
The work will run from the last week in July until the end of September (flexible), and will be supported by a student stipend of £200 per week supported by the NERC – ENVISION DTP Research Experience Placement scheme. Training will be provided for all of the plant physiological techniques required.
If you want to gain insight and experience in working in a research environment, learn some new techniques and develop your CV, all whilst earning some money, please send a short (less than one A4 page) letter of motivation to Felicity Hayes (fhay@ceh.ac.uk) by 30th May. If you need further details, or to discuss the opportunity, please contact me.
Dr Felicity Hayes
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Please note the following eligibility criteria. Applicants should:
- be studying for an undergraduate degree in a quantitative discipline outside of NERC’s scientific remit (g. mathematics, statistics, computing, engineering, physics)
- be applying for a placement in a different department to their undergraduate degree,
- be undertaking their first undergraduate degree studies (or integrated Masters),
- be expected to obtain a first or upper second class UK honours degree,
- be eligible for subsequent NERC PhD funding (i.e. UK, EU or right to remain in the UK.