The last century has seen a rapid increase in populations of deer species across Europe\u00a0due to altered land use, improved wildlife management, reduced predation and more\u00a0favourable climatic conditions. High deer densities have the potential to restructure\u00a0vegetation, reduce woodland productivity and impact biodiversity. Sustainable\u00a0management of these species is therefore crucial, but it relies on a detailed\u00a0understanding of how impacts from herbivory are mediated. Typically, management\u00a0focuses at the landscape scale to account for the large population ranges of many deer\u00a0species. However, animal movement and foraging decisions are complex, hierarchical\u00a0processes that are driven by resource availability and perceived risk\/disturbance over a\u00a0range of spatial and temporal scales. While it is challenging to observe these behaviours\u00a0directly, recent advances in tracking technology now allows high resolution movement\u00a0data to be recorded from multiple individuals remotely. In this project, we will use GPS\u00a0collars coupled with detailed surveys of vegetation structure to determine how fine-scale\u00a0movement of individual deer scales up to population-level utilisation of woodland habitats\u00a0in a human-altered landscape. The research will focus on an expanding population of\u00a0fallow deer in the Elwy Valley, North Wales. Specifically, the project will:<\/p>\n
This project offers an\u00a0exciting opportunity for a student to undertake cutting-edge research exploring the drivers\u00a0of deer herbivory in woodland habitats over time and space. The impacts of large\u00a0herbivores are a pressing issue for conservation, forestry and agriculture and this project\u00a0has the potential to inform future policy on sustainable deer management.<\/p>\n
Applicants are required to have a minimum of a 2:1 Honours Degree in a relevant\u00a0biological discipline, such as Ecology, Zoology, Conservation Biology or Animal\u00a0Behaviour. Candidates that have a Masters Degree and\/or experience in ecological\u00a0research are strongly encouraged to apply, as are those with a firm grounding and\u00a0interest in herbivore ecology, fieldwork and the quantitative analysis of spatial datasets.<\/p>\n
For further details on the project and the requirements, please contact Dr. Graeme\u00a0Shannon (g.shannon@bangor.ac.uk<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last century has seen a rapid increase in populations of deer species across Europe\u00a0due to altered land use, improved wildlife management, reduced predation and more\u00a0favourable climatic conditions. High deer densities have the potential to restructure\u00a0vegetation, reduce woodland productivity and impact biodiversity. Sustainable\u00a0management of these species is therefore crucial, but it relies on a detailed\u00a0understanding… Read More »Quantifying the effects of deer on woodland structure in a human-altered landscape<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":5816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-5815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-51","tag-bangor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/files\/2017\/10\/Graeme-Shannon-Image-400x400px.jpg?fit=400%2C400","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kFzn-1vN","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5817,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5815\/revisions\/5817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}