The rise and fall of plant populations worldwide

Plant populations are an essential resource for human survival and wellbeing and a critical component of biodiversity. Changes in the environment affect whether plant populations persist or go locally extinct, potentially disrupting ecological processes and ecosystem services. In order to manage environmental disruptions, and adapt to environmental change, we need to develop general predictions of the responses of plant populations to the environment. The demographic rates of growth, reproduction and death determine where and how plant populations persist as well as the evolutionary trajectory of lineages; however, spatial variation in these vital rates has not been adequately captured in current models. We are at serious risk therefore, of over- or under-predicting species responses to global change. The PhD student will develop skills in population biology, invasion biology and quantitative ecology to determine how geography and the environment affect population dynamics. The student will have access to detailed demographic data for >850 plant species via the COMPADRE plant matrix database http://www.compadre-db.org/ and will also conduct fieldwork on a model species, Plantago lanceolata, at several sites in Ireland. The student will also have access to data for P. lanceolata demography at multiple sites via the PLANTPOPNET project http://plantpopnet.wordpress.com/ . There is considerable scope for a student to focus on particular questions of interest. The student will join a new dynamic research group led by the Chair of Zoology at Trinity College Dublin http://www.tcd.ie/Zoology/research/research/buckley/index.php
Trinity College Dublin is the highest ranked university in Ireland, ranked 9th in research performance in Europe, 61st in the world across all indicators and in the top 100 universities in the world for Biological Sciences.