Prof Philip Stephens
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Red deer are important both ecologically and economically. In Scotland, they are a tourist attraction but are also the focus for deer stalking which generates both income and jobs. Upland areas have become very popular with hill walkers since the right of responsible access came into effect in Scotland in 2005. This has the potential to disturb deer, altering their spatial distribution and habitat use. In some cases, this disturbance can cause conflicts with legitimate management objectives because it has been credited with changing the distribution of deer across neighbouring estates, affecting the numbers available for stalking and shifting the pattern of grazing impacts. To assess the extent of disturbance effects, it is necessary to have data on the spatial distribution of deer in relation to habitat, as well as the spatial distribution of human activity, both at a temporal scale that enables insights into the effects of disturbance. It is also necessary to take into account other factors that may affect deer distribution such as changing livestock numbers and management activities such as supplementary feeding sites. Here, we propose to focus on a large field site popular with hill walkers, to determine the major drivers of deer habitat use and distribution. Our aims are to: (i) document red deer space use throughout the estate and neighbouring sections of the deer management area; (ii) study, concurrently, the distribution and activities of tourists, hunters and livestock, as well as the provision of supplementary feed in the area; (iii) develop existing models of red deer space use to incorporate information on drivers not currently included; (iv) parameterise demographic models for the area, to determine whether important differences exist in the match between observed and expected population growth. Fieldwork will involve monitoring the distribution of, and habitat use by, deer, using a combination of pellet group count methods2, camera trapping, and vantage point counts. Human traffic across the site will bre monitored using questionnaires and returnable GPS units to capture actual routes taken to coincide with days when herbivore counts are being recorded from vantage points. Analyses will statistical approaches, demographic modelling and GIS.
Funding Notes
This project is in competition with others for funding. Success will depend on the quality of applications received, relative to those for competing projects. If you are interested in applying, in the first instance contact the supervisor, with a CV and covering letter, detailing your reasons for applying for the project. Promising applicants will be asked to apply via the University’s online application system by 5th January 2017.
References
More context on preliminary data is available here: http://www.bds.org.uk/index.php/research/current-research-projects/13-current-projects/142-detecting-changes-in-deer-numbers