Ecosystem services under uncertainty about future climate in Central African forests

A competitively funded PhD project is available in the Stirling Conservation Science group in collaboration with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Wallingford) exploring uncertainty in the provision of services from forest ecosystems as a result of future climate change and its effects on biodiversity and human livelihoods. One of the main applied and interdisciplinary challenges for a sustainable future is uncertainty in environmental change leading to a range of undesirable outcomes such as species extinctions, increased poverty and reduced food security. This project will link large-scale climate predictions and land use change to regional and local decision-making scenarios to aid adaptation to a changing world.

We will use the tropical forests in Gabon in Central sub-Saharan Africa as a case study, an area that is high in biodiversity but has been subject to large-scale exploitation of timber and non-timber forest products including bushmeat. Gabon is currently actively engaging with policy solutions to reconcile preservation of, and enhanced access to, sustainable ecosystem services, including carbon storage, with predicted long term growth in its currently natural-resource based economy. This studentship will help to develop a framework to make decisions under environmental uncertainty to improve livelihoods among the rural poor and to conserve biodiversity. The successful applicant will be supervised by staff based both at Stirling (Dr Nils Bunnefeld), those based in Gabon (Dr Kate Abernethy) and at CEH (Prof James Bullock, Dr Chris Huntingford) and will work in close partnership with The Gabon National Parks Agency (GNPA).

There is currently great variation in predicted climate change among different global models and scenarios and as one downscales these predictions to regional climate models or finer, this variation is increased. There is little explicit work on the mechanisms by which climate change may affect the provision of local or global ecosystem services, especially in the poorer parts of the world. In particular, there is a need to know how changes in climate will affect the supply of a range of ecosystem services, which are important to local human livelihoods. This project will use existing data from long-term socio-economic surveys in Gabon and parallel long-term data on local climate and forest dynamics, to understand the link between climate, provision and use of ecosystem services and human livelihoods.

The key scientific advancement of this project will be to develop a framework that combines detailed understanding of the ecological dynamics of the system under climate change, the ecosystem services it provides and decision-making by stakeholders (local people, conservation organisations, managers, local and state authorities). The overall aim of the project will be to build resilience to climate and environmental change by empowering people with evidence based decisions making tools that can take a range of uncertainties into account.

More detailed information is available from this website http://www.iapetus.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/IAP_14_19-STI-Bunnefeld.pdf and by contacting Dr Nils Bunnefeld at [Email Address Removed]. For information on the Tropical Ecology and Conservation Group see http://www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/groups/bes/ecologyevolutionandconservation/teac/. Our blog Stirling Conservation Science http://sti-cs.org might also be of interest to see the range of conservation science projects at Stirling University.

Applicants must hold a minimum of a Bachelors degree at 2:1 or above (or equivalent) in a related subject. You must be highly numerate and ideally possess relevant experience in ecosystem services modeling and socio-economic research. The project will involve periods of fieldwork and work with GNPA in Gabon. Consequently, you should also be confident and both independent and a good team member. Knowledge of French or willingness to learn French is important.

You should send a current CV and a covering letter to Dr Bunnefeld at the email address above by 5pm UK time on Friday 15th January 2014. The covering letter must detail clearly your motivation for pursuing this research project and set out how your experience makes you suitable for the post. You should also arrange for two referee statements to be sent directly to Dr Bunnefeld by the closing date. Interviews will take place in the period 26th-30th January 2013.