Comparative response to anthropogenic stressors in terrestrial and freshwater communities

Supervisors: Dr. Ian Vaughan, Prof. Steve Ormerod & Prof. Jane Memmott (University of Bristol)

Understanding and predicting how individual species and whole communities respond to stressors such as pollution or intensive land management is an important aim of ecology and environmental management. There is a need to understand both how basic community properties change (e.g. richness, prevalence of generalists, food web structure) and how the processes that structure communities (e.g. inter-specific competition) change. Of particular interest are general responses observed across different stressors and ecosystems (Gutiérrez-Cánovas et al., 2013), which not only help with understanding and managing responses to current stressors, but may provide guidance about the effects of novel stressors (e.g. changing climate, invasive species).

This PhD will aim to provide a better understanding of both generic community responses to stressors and the underlying mechanisms controlling community assembly under increasing stress. It will comprise two phases. The first will be a meta-analysis of data sets held in Cardiff and Bristol universities describing aquatic and terrestrial communities along a range of stress gradients (including pollutants and land management intensity). This will identify common and distinct features of community responses to different stressors and in different environments (e.g. aquatic v. terrestrial), test current hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms and develop further hypotheses to test in the second phase. Phase 2 will involve extensive fieldwork, sampling communities along a stress gradient in a model terrestrial or aquatic system. This will aim to test hypotheses developed in Phase 1 and look at how overall community structure and species interactions (food webs or pollinator networks) change simultaneously in response to stress, and in turn what these changes reveal about the underlying mechanisms structuring the community.

Extensive training in all aspects of the project will be provided by a combination of the supervisory team and formal courses, tailored to the needs of the student and the project, and including the requisite data analysis and fieldwork techniques. The student will be based in Cardiff, with regular visits to Bristol throughout the PhD, including longer periods for training in key areas (e.g. network analyses).

Start date: October 2016. Please note that mandatory activities will take place during September 2016.

Academic criteria: 2:1 degree in any Biological Sciences subject/ equivalent.

To apply, please email your CV and a covering letter to the primary supervisor of the project(s) you are applying for, including two named referees. Additionally, applicants should submit an application for postgraduate study via the Cardiff University Online Application Service, including an upload of your CV. Applicants should select Doctor of Philosophy (Biosciences), with a start date of October 2016. In the research proposal section, please specify the project title and supervisors of this project and copy the project description in the text box provided. In the funding section, please select "I will be applying for a scholarship / grant" and specify that you are applying for funding from NERC GW4+ DTP.