Blue carbon and ecosystem functioning in mangroves under pressure - Physical Geography PhD Studentship (NERC GW4+ DTP funded) Ref: 4019

This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP). The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus five Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/


Project Background
Mangrove forests provide a wealth of ecosystem services to the marine and terrestrial environments and to people. These forests are biodiversity hotspots and mangrove trees play a key role in the protection against natural hazards. Mangroves also store large amounts of carbon and are amongst the world’s most carbon-rich ecosystems. The carbon stored by mangroves is called Blue Carbon and may be crucial in counterbalancing anthropogenic CO2 emissions and mitigating climate change. Human activities and climate change are posing serious threats and mangrove forests are in rapid decline worldwide. Despite the many benefits they provide, land-use change in coastal areas and sea level rise are leading to the degradation of mangroves with negative impacts on the ecosystem services they provide. Lack of understanding on the long-term evolution of mangrove ecosystems hinders the design and implementation of appropriate environmental management and as a result, essential ecosystem services are already being lost.

Project Aims and Methods
The aim of this PhD project is to determine what processes control mangrove carbon accumulation and investigate the impacts of human activities in a mangrove system under pressure: the Magdalena delta in Colombia. The Magdalena delta is undergoing rapid change: the building of dams and dikes is changing sediment supply to the coastal system and increasing pressure from urban development is driving significant mangrove degradation. You will have the opportunity to collect sediment cores from strategically selected locations from this delta and use state-of-the-art tools to unravel how mangrove carbon storage is affected by ecosystem and landscape change.The project can be developed to fit your interests. Possible objectives are:- Reconstruct mangrove forest evolution by analysing fossil-pollen from the collected sediment sequences.- Quantify carbon accumulation over the past ca. 1000 years and link trends to ecosystem evolution.- Characterize organic matter composition and determine the origin of sequestered carbon. - Evaluate spatial variations in carbon accumulation to elucidate effects of mangrove degradation.- Simulate mangrove ecosystem evolution and carbon accumulation under future environmental-change scenarios.This project enables you to conduct interdisciplinary research (combining geomorphology, palaeoecology and biogeochemistry) and explore the role of tropical coastal wetlands in sequestering carbon. Project results will be crucial to develop mangrove restoration goals and sustainable management strategies.

Eligibility
NERC GW4+ DTP studentships are open to UK and Irish nationals who, if successful in their applications, will receive a full studentship including payment of university tuition fees at the home fees rate.
A limited number of full studentships are also available to international students which are defined as EU (excluding Irish nationals), EEA, Swiss and all other non-UK nationals.
Studentships for international students will only cover fees at the UK home fees rate. However, university tuition fees for international students are higher than the UK home fees rate therefore the difference will need to be funded from a separate source which the student or project supervisor may have to find. Unfortunately, the NERC GW4+ DTP cannot fund this difference from our studentship funding. Further guidance on how this will work will be issued in November.
The conditions for eligibility of home fees status are complex and you will need to seek advice if you have moved to or from the UK (or Republic of Ireland) within the past 3 years or have applied for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.