Biological diversity in Vietnam

Vietnam covers a wide latitudinal range, over 1,000 miles from north to south, and terrestrial habitats extend from temperate montain to tropical lowland rainforest. After decades of neglect, studies on Vietnam’s biota are revealing rich diversity, high levels of endemism and opportunities for pioneering research. Current fieldwork focussed on the terrestrial snail fauna demonstrates the value of land snails as research tools in evolutionary biology. Recording and understanding patterns of diversity and investigating historical biogeography are priority areas for study using molecular techniques (PCR amplification, DNA sequencing, phylogeny reconstruction, molecular barcoding). Northern Vietnam is of particular interest because of the abundance of limestone hills, which act as habitat islands and, in addition to radiations of endemic taxa, share morphologically similar allopatric forms with unresolved species limits. Projects are joint ventures with the University of Nottingham, the Natural History Museum, London, the Vietnam National Museum of Nature and Vietnam’s Department of National Parks.

This project can be undertaken as either a 1 year MRes degree or a 3 year PhD degree.

For further details, see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/biology

On-line application form available at https://pgapps.nottingham.ac.uk/