Lead supervisor: Dr Sylvia Toet (University of York - Department of Environment & Geography)
Co-supervisors: Prof James Moir (University of York - Department of Biology) Dr Peter Levy (CEH) Justin Lyons (Natural Resources Wales)
The student will be registered with the Department of Environment & Geography
Background
Northern peatlands store vast amounts of soil carbon, amounting to around one third of the global soil organic carbon stock. Climate change is expected to decrease the capacity of peatlands to store carbon, as warming and drought, and subsequent water table drawdown, will disrupt ecosystem functioning by modifying vegetation communities, decomposition rates and greenhouse gas emissions. Evidence for such shifts is, however, currently mainly based on short-lived field manipulation experiments. Additionally, studies on rain-fed peatlands (bogs) and episodic summer drought effects are underrepresented.
How northern peatlands will respond to climate change is therefore still highly uncertain and hinder process-based modelling of these responses and inclusion in global terrestrial and Earth system models.
Objective
This project will assess the long-term impacts of global warming and episodic summer drought on carbon and nutrient cycling in UK bogs, and the microbial, plant, and soil processes underpinning them.
Novelty
The research will involve a 12-year climate manipulation field experiment on the peatland Cors Fochno, Wales. One of the longest experiments of its kind in the world, it examines the impacts of climate warming and summer drought on peatland vegetation, microbes, and greenhouse gas fluxes. Warming increases the abundance of shrubs and reduces net CO2 uptake and CH4 emissions from the bog, whilst the combined warming and drought plots have changed from a net carbon sink to a source. These results open fundamental questions about the source(s) of the additional carbon released to the atmosphere, and the microbial, plant, and soil processes involved.
Timeliness
Around 80% of peatlands are in northern latitudes, where climate change is projected to be most severe. Hence, we urgently need to reduce the uncertainty in potential carbon loss from these ecosystems and understand the underlying processes, to enable better representation in large-scale models and inform effective climate change mitigation.
The ACCE DTP is committed to recruiting extraordinary future scientists regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation or career pathway to date. We understand that commitment and excellence can be shown in many ways and have built our recruitment process to reflect this. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly those underrepresented in science, who have curiosity, creativity and a drive to learn new skills.
Please complete and upload this proforma in support of your application.
Entry Requirements: Students with, or expecting to gain, at least an upper second class honours degree, or equivalent, are invited to apply. The interdisciplinary nature of this programme means that we welcome applications from students with backgrounds in any biological, chemical, and/or physical science, or students with mathematical backgrounds who are interested in using their skills in addressing biological, ecological or evolutionary questions.
Programme: PhD in ACCE (4 years)
Start Date: 1st October 2023 (the student will be registered with the Department of Environment & Geography)
Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed in the w/c 20 February 2023
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