About the Project
Lead Supervisor
Professor Jamie Stevens, University of Exeter
Additional Supervisors
Dr Rasmus Lauridsen, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
Professor Michael Bruford, Cardiff University
Bruce Stockley, Westcountry Rivers Trust
Location: Streatham Campus, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon.
The NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Freshwater Biosciences and Sustainability (GW4 FRESH CDT) will provide a world-class doctoral research and training environment, for the next generation of interdisciplinary freshwater scientists equipped to tackle future global water challenges. GW4 FRESH harnesses freshwater scientists from four of the UK’s most research-intensive universities (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter) plus world-class research organisations the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and British Geological Survey (BGS).
For an overview of the GW4 FRESH CDT please see website www.gw4fresh.co.uk
Note, the research projects listed are in competition with 23 other studentship projects available across the GW4 FRESH CDT Partnership. Up to 12 studentships will be awarded to the best applicants.
Project Details
Trout (Salmo trutta) recolonised many UK rivers after the last ice age, and the current UK population comprises a mixture of European lineages occupying diverse landscapes, with water quality and chemistry varying according to local geology and geography. In addition, human activities, including industrial and agricultural pollution, affect water-courses and pose major physiological challenges to resident fish. Among the many sources of aquatic pollution, metal mining has been a significant factor in Britain and Ireland since the industrial revolution, particularly in Cornwall and mid-Wales, both areas of intensive tin and lead mining.
Understanding the evolutionary and demographic processes maintaining natural populations of socio-economically important wild species, including fisheries, is key to their conservation and sustainable management, and is enshrined in UN Conventions on Biological Diversity and Sustainable Development. In Britain and Ireland, brown and sea trout fisheries are locally important from a socio-economic and ecosystem services perspective; as such, trout have been the focus of several recent pan-European research projects.
This PhD will build on these projects and will use state-of-the-art genomic sequencing to explore the evolutionary adaptations of trout populations in southwest England, central Wales and southeast Ireland (all regions with trout populations affected by on-going metal pollution), to disentangle the relative importance of the 3 main factors affecting the ability of trout to adapt: evolutionary history (post-glacial colonisation lineage), local adaptation (natural geochemistry, river location) and human-driven pollution (mining and persistent heavy-metal contamination).
These questions lend themselves to an environmental genomics approach designed to identify signatures of selection in the genomes of individual fish. Here we will take advantage of existing trout tissue/DNA samples from England, Wales and Ireland. At each site the student will use a mix of existing samples and will undertake fieldwork with local agencies to collect new samples from locations up- and down-river of known contamination sources (i.e. tin and lead mines); it is known that fish down-river of these sites are often morphologically and physiologically distinct (e.g. black-finned trout in the Dyfi, Wales). Bruford et al. recently successfully detected genomic signatures of domestication using a similar approach in sheep and goats (Nature Communications, 2018); colleagues at the Sanger Centre have agreed to provide support for interrogating the recently published trout genome.
This studentship will form a CASE project – funded in partnership with The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT), with in-kind contributions from Natural Resources Wales (sampling). Additional to standard NERC funding, Bruford and Stevens will contribute funds to ensure sequencing of all relevant samples.
Eligibility:
GW4 FRESH CDT welcomes applications from both UK and EU applicants. For further information regarding the eligibility criteria please see the Student Eligibilty section in the following web page http://www.gw4fresh.co.uk/how-to-apply/doctoral-students/
How to apply
Applications open on Monday 8th October and close at 9:00 on 17th December 2018
You will need to complete an application to the GW4 FRESH CDT for an “offer of funding”.
Please complete the application form at http://www.gw4fresh.co.uk/how-to-apply/doctoral-students/ also sending a copy of your CV and a covering letter to the CDT by 9:00 on 17th December 2018.
After the closing deadline all applications and CVs will be forwarded to the lead Supervisor of the project(s) you have selected. They will interview you at a mutually convenient date in January 2019 (tbc) and submit their preferred candidate to FRESH CDT.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a panel interview in Cardiff in the week commencing 25th February 2019. Further details will be included in the shortlisting letter
For further details regarding the application process please see the following web page http://www.gw4fresh.co.uk/how-to-apply/doctoral-students/
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