Novel Processing of Bird-borne Biologger Data to Improve Offshore Windfarm Consenting and Operations

The successful PhD student will be co-supervised and work alongside our external partner Natural England.

This studentship is open to students worldwide *please see funding notes below

Renewable Energy is one of the fastest growing sectors addressing the most important challenges of our age.  Offshore renewables, energy distribution, and the environmental impacts of constructing and decommissioning the infrastructure are some one of the most pressing research themes faced by the UK and beyond.  The Net Zero Maritime Energy Solutions Centre (N0MES) for Doctoral Training is creating the future specialist workforce needed by our industrial partners through PhD projects finding solutions to real-life industrial needs. N0MES offers 4-year PhD studentships for exceptional researchers. With the support of the University of Liverpool (UoL), Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and over 30 maritime energy sector partners, N0MES postgraduate researchers will pursue new, engineering-centred, interdisciplinary research

N0MES CDT Theme C: Environmental impact

The move to clean energy will rely on development of offshore windfarms (OWFs), but this imposes conflicts for marine birds which can be disrupted either by direct collision, reduction in available habitat or barrier effects. Consenting of new OWFs is hindered by incomplete understanding of bird behaviour in this context. You will focus on new computational approaches to elucidate these critical data and new tools for stakeholders to use, enabling incorporation of these findings in their work.

Strand One: Direct Collision risk. Collision risk models quantify probability of collision given species’ characteristics (flight speed and altitude). With huge amounts of GPS data available for seabirds worldwide, foraging distributions are well known. However, ground speed is relatively tricky to calculate from standard, low-resolution GPS data, which assumes straight flight paths. To reduce inherent inaccuracies such 'scale-biased' speed estimates introduce to collision risk estimates, we will use new approaches to derive true ground speed from coarse GPS. Then, by using available GPS tracking data for the world’s seabirds, we will learn to predict grounds speeds based on species morphology, behaviour and local wind conditions, providing a means to obtain true ground speed for any seabird, anywhere.

Strand Two: Availability Bias. This metric of submergence behaviour in diving birds is critical in establishing local population estimates in potential OWF development areas following aerial survey counts. Currently, inappropriate correction factors for availability bias are used, which can dramatically over-estimate habitat usage by different species. We will reanalyse existing time-depth-recorder datasets to explore drivers of submergence behaviour in space and time, accounting for the influence of species lifestyle and phylogeny.

Strand Three: Sharing. This will create a stakeholder-facing online resource featuring these and other tools from parallel projects that can be used to address OWEER gaps, reduce uncertainty and accelerate consenting.

Application Information

We want all our staff and students to feel that Liverpool is an inclusive and welcoming environment that actively celebrates and encourages diversity. We are committed to working with students to make all reasonable project adaptations including supporting those with caring responsibilities, disabilities or other personal circumstances. For example, if you have a disability, you may be entitled to a Disabled Students Allowance on top of your studentship to help cover the costs of any additional support that a person studying for a doctorate might need as a result. We believe everyone deserves an excellent education and encourage students from all backgrounds and personal circumstances to apply.

Applicant Eligibility

Candidates will have, or be due to obtain, a master’s degree or equivalent from a reputable university in a relevant subject OR a First in a relevant bachelor’s degree. 

Important Application Process

Please submit your application to the University of Liverpool here: https://app.askadmissions.co.uk/AYApplicantLogin/fl_ApplicantLogin.asp?id=liv

Follow the guidance notes here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/postgraduate-research/how-to-apply/

Candidates wishing to discuss the research project should contact the primary supervisor - see supervisor section at top of page.

Those wishing to discuss the application process should contact CDT Manager, Matt Fulton, at the University of Liverpool [[Email Address Removed]].