With the global population projected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, food security is a\u00a0growing concern in many world regions. Rising temperatures, changes in precipitation\u00a0and deteriorating air quality compound the problem by reducing yields of many staple\u00a0crops. In response to these environmental stresses many plants have evolved to produce\u00a0defensive compounds to protect vital photosynthetic and metabolic pathways from\u00a0damage caused by heat and oxidants. Once released to the atmosphere however many\u00a0of these compounds are highly reactive and their oxidation can lead to the formation of\u00a0secondary air pollutants such as ozone. You will investigate the response of oilseed rape,\u00a0a key global crop used for food, fodder and biofuel production, to elevated temperatures\u00a0and ozone concentrations and periods of drought. You will spend 18 months conducting a\u00a0series of experiments in the state-of-the-art solardome facilities at CEH Bangor to\u00a0determine how such stresses affect photosynthesis, crop yield and nutritional quality, and\u00a0how the synthesis and production of protective compounds change under different\u00a0conditions and at different periods in the growing season. By applying these\u00a0environmental stresses singly and in combination you will explore how the interactions\u00a0between them may exacerbate or ameliorate the impacts of the individual treatments. For\u00a0the remainder of your time you will be based at Lancaster Environment Centre, where you\u00a0will develop a computer model to simulate the effect of future climate and air quality\u00a0change on global crop production and emissions of these protective compounds. This will\u00a0enable you to investigate the implications for food supply under various future scenarios\u00a0and inform policy on this vital issue.<\/p>\n
Applicants should hold a minimum of a UK Honours degree at 2:1 level or equivalent in\u00a0Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Natural or Environmental Science, or a related\u00a0discipline. Enthusiasm, self-motivation, curiosity and the ability to communicate to a range\u00a0of audiences would all be distinctly advantageous.<\/p>\n
For further details please contact Kirsti Ashworth (k.s.ashworth1@lancaster.ac.uk<\/a>) or\u00a0Felicity Hayes (fhay@ceh.ac.uk<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the global population projected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, food security is a\u00a0growing concern in many world regions. Rising temperatures, changes in precipitation\u00a0and deteriorating air quality compound the problem by reducing yields of many staple\u00a0crops. In response to these environmental stresses many plants have evolved to produce\u00a0defensive compounds to protect vital photosynthetic… Read More »Do biogenic VOCs protect plant productivity under multiple environmental stress?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":5895,"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":[53,12],"class_list":["post-5894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-51","tag-ceh","tag-lancaster"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/files\/2017\/10\/Kirsti-Ashworth-Image-400x400px.jpg?fit=400%2C400","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kFzn-1x4","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894","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=5894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5896,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions\/5896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}