Round Island, Mauritius, hosts a community of rare endemic lizard species. Their environment was cleared of most vegetation by introduced goats and rabbits (now eliminated). A partnership between the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and the Government’s National Parks and Conservation Service has permitted the restoration of habitat and with it the recovery of the reptile-dominated vertebrate community (Cole et al. 2018). The reptile species occupy a landscape going through plant community recovery, but little is known about availability of the invertebrate prey. The skinks and geckos have proved to be remarkably resilient to environmental change, although some species were extirpated from the island’s reptile community. It is likely the reptiles originally adapted to different niches, including trophic niches that allowed them to avoid direct competition. One species, the Telfair’s skink, is a generalist, consuming a wide range of different taxonomic groups. Other species may have narrower niche axes and be more specialised. Understanding the feeding niche of the reptiles may help explain differences in population recovery and guide restoration management to enhance the success of planned reptile reintroductions.
Project Aims and Methods
- Analyse the diets of the lizard species that have survived on Round Island. Collect lizard faecal samples from across the island and use High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) of plant and invertebrate DNA.
- DNA barcode as many invertebrate species on Round Island as possible (we have already barcoded all the plants). Invertebrates will be identified by the student at the Natural History Museum. Once we have the barcodes we can interpret the output from HTS and identify who is eating what.
- Analyse for prey choice and competition. Compare what lizards are eating with available food (Vaughan et al. 2018) and use dietary overlap tests to assess dietary similarity.
- Analyse differences in the abundances of lizard and invertebrate species in different plant communities. Apply/develop a range of invertebrate and reptile survey techniques. Look for areas of more advanced regrowth of the vegetation to predict changes to the island food web structure in the future.
- Analyse the diets of reptile species that are to be reintroduced to Round Island’s reptile community. Use prey overlap tests to evaluate whether any of these species are likely to compete with Round Island species.
Co-Supervisor: Dr. Nik Cole, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (Jersey) and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (Mauritius).
Co-Supervisor: Dr. Rosemary Moorhouse-Gann, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (Jersey)
Candidate requirements
The student should have a strong academic record with expertise relevant to this project. Must be able to work in the field on a rugged tropical island for extended periods and also be good in the molecular biology lab. Possession of a clean driving licence would be an advantage for accessing mainland sites on Mauritius.
Project partners
The CASE partner, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, has been restoring Round Island for the last 43 years, in partnership with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and the Government of Mauritius. They can provide all the field ecology training required by the student and data on population trends of lizards and other taxa. The Collaborative/DTP partner, the Natural History Museum, will train the students to identify Round Island invertebrates potentially in the diets of the lizards. This is an exceptional opportunity to work with international leaders in their fields.
Training
The student will take full advantage of courses provided by the GW4+ DTP2 (e.g. statistics, bioinformatics). Additional courses will be selected (depending upon student background) provided by the Cardiff University Doctoral Academy (e.g. courses on interacting with their supervisors, risk assessment, writing a PhD Thesis, writing grant proposals and diversity training). Training related to the project will be provided by the supervisors and their research teams. This will include hands-on training pertaining to conservation management in the field, molecular ecology techniques, invertebrate identification and curation, and food web analyses. The student would spend several weeks at the Natural History Museum and ~ nine months on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. The student will be encouraged to use this training to develop novel ideas that can be fed into the project. Additionally, the student will attend Durrell's Annual Conservation Symposium in Jersey to network with global conservation practitioners and scientists.
How to apply
For information on how to apply for postgraduate study at Cardiff University, please follow this link: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research/programmes/programme/biosciences-phd-mphil-md When applying, please ensure that you include on the Cardiff application form the project title you are applying for, the supervisor and note ‘NERC DTP’ under the source of funding.
The application deadline is Monday 9 January 2023 at 2359 GMT. Interviews will take place from 22nd February to 8 March 2023. For more information about the NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership please visit https://www.nercgw4plus.ac.uk.
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