Overview:
Understanding diet and spawning behaviour is critical for developing ecosystem-oriented conservation strategies for saving vulnerable fish species. It allows authorities to target key times and locations for protection, thus helping to balance the economic needs of fisheries with those of ecosystem health in order to achieve long-term, sustainable food security. However, scientific observation of aquatic ecosystems has only been established in recent decades, often resulting in conservation decisions that lack key details of how aquatic ecosystems respond to long-term changes in fisheries exploitation and environmental conditions. Ancient fish bones and teeth offer a solution to this problem: their physical and chemical characteristics reflect specific behaviours and ecosystem dynamics and can thus serve as a record for investigating long-term patterns in order to anticipate how future fish stocks can be sustainably managed.
While sheepshead have always been part of Gulf of Mexico fisheries, they were often overlooked in favour of more profitable species. However, as more commercially desirable fish become scarer, sheepshead populations are under increasing pressure – a scenario emblematic of the global crises of ‘fishing down food chains’.
Approaches refined by project supervisors demonstrate that fish bone isotopic compositions (Guiry et al. 2016, 2020ab) as well as wear and surface damage on teeth (Purnell and Darras 2015) can provide robust markers for reconstructing feeding habitats and migratory patterns (Guiry et al. 2021). This project will apply these techniques to sheepshead and other fish bones and teeth, which are abundant in the archaeological and historical archives spanning the last 2500 years (de France and Kennedy 2020), to reveal key behavioural characteristics for conservation management priorities (Vanderkooy 2006) including: (1) identifying sub populations in order to better protect spawning aggregations during critical times of the year, and (2) assessing the importance of increasingly vulnerable areas of aquatic vegetation (sea grass beds) in order to quantify the impact their loss would have on sheepshead life history stages.
More broadly, despite growing calls for a better understanding of past environments to inform rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems, it is still uncommon for researchers of the past (archaeology) and present (ecology) to directly integrate perspectives between disciplinary ‘silos’ (Guiry and Hunt 2020). This is a key obstacle as archaeological evidence may offer the only source of data for addressing longer-term aspects of ecosystem change. In this context, this project will serve as an important model for future research.
Academic entry requirements:
- Applicants must have or expect to obtain a first class or upper second class BSc and/or M-level degree (or an equivalent overseas qualification) in a relevant subject.
- University of Leicester English language requirements apply as necessary.
Informal enquiries/Contact details:
- Eric Guiry - [Email Address Removed]
- Mark Purnell - [Email Address Removed]
For general enquiries please email [Email Address Removed]
How to apply
Please read carefully the application advice under the How to Apply section at https://le.ac.uk/study/research-degrees/funded-opportunities/centa-phd-studentships before submitting your application.
Eligibility:
Applicants who meet or are expected to meet the academic entry requirements can apply.
To be eligible for a full (Home) award a student must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the studentship.
If you do not meet the criteria for UK Fees you will need to fund the difference between UK and International fees for the duration of your studies. A limited number of top up studentships to fund the fee difference may become available but are not guaranteed.
If you are unsure of your fee status please email [Email Address Removed] and include a copy of your passport and any immigration permission you may hold.
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