Background: Shelf seas are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, playing important roles in nutrient cycling, climate regulation, and food production. Benthic macroinvertebrates are key components of these ecosystems, forming an important and highly diverse component of marine food webs, with organisms from multiple phyla interacting in complex communities. Benthic invertebrates are also sensitive to a range of environmental and anthropogenic stressors, and are useful indicators of environmental change. The aim of this project is to mobilise new data products and computational capabilities to better quantify how benthic communities vary in time and space, across multiple dimensions of diversity (taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic), in response to environmental and anthropogenic drivers.
Objectives: This project will provide the fundamental information necessary for managing our marine ecosystems in a changing environment by addressing the following questions:
● How are different dimensions of diversity related in the marine benthos?
● Which seabed habitats are most important for different dimensions of benthic biodiversity in European seas?
● Do existing networks of MPAs adequately cover benthic biodiversity?
● Where are the spatial priorities to protect benthic diversity and ecosystem functioning?
Novelty and Timeliness: Benthic communities are not routinely monitored at large spatial scales, but many smaller surveys have now been aggregated into openly-available biodiversity databases. Additional data cleaning and processing has recently led to the creation of new, high quality data products of presence, absence, and abundance of benthic macroinvertebrates throughout European seas. Methods developed by the supervisory team allow linkages between benthic community change and complementary spatial data products including seabed habitat maps, Marine Protected Areas, indicators of fishing pressure, and high-resolution climate variables. This project will be the first attempt to link together all these data types and will do so at an unprecedented European spatial scale.
Start date: 1st October 2023
This PhD project is part of the NERC funded Doctoral Training Partnership “ACCE” (Adapting to the Challenges of a Changing Environment. ACCE is a partnership between the Universities of Sheffield, Liverpool, York, CEH, and NHM, for more information about ACCE and how to apply please visit the website: https://accedtp.ac.uk/
The ACCE DTP is committed to recruiting extraordinary future scientists regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith or religious belief, pregnancy or maternity, parental or caring responsibilities or career pathway to date. We understand that a student’s potential can be shown in many ways and we strive to recruit students from all backgrounds, and support them on their scientific journey.
We have designed our application systems to identify candidates who are likely to be successful in research regardless of what opportunities may have been available to them prior to their application.
How to apply:
All applicants to ACCE must complete the ACCE personal statement proforma. This is instead of a normal personal/supporting statement/cover letter. The proforma is designed to standardise this part of the application to minimise the difference between those who are given support and those who are not. The proforma and more information on the ACCE application process can be found here: https://accedtp.ac.uk/how-to-apply/
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