Projects

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,…

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, Transy…

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 impo…

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 tra…

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 g…

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+ …

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 W…

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 soi…

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 diver…

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, 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…

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 the…

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 descript…

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 a…

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 t…

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. Beng…

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

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 b…

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 chikun…

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 nat…

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…

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 intereste…

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 nitrog…

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 consequ…

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 evolutio…

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 volat…

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 …

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 …

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 s…

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.…

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 lar…

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 t…

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 ti…

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 ca…

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 com…

Projects

Applications for 2021 are now open.

Available Projects