Understanding the consequences of metal pollution is of increasing importance given the ever-growing consumption of resources and the increasing sophistication of metallic products, creating new and different types of waste, which is often discarded into the environment (Nriagu, 1990).
Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland is a unique marine water body, a large deep inland sea connected to the open ocean by a narrow channel that creates tidal currents of speeds up to 9 knots.
The aim of this project is to use peat deposits in southern South America to identify long-term changes in the strength and position of the Southern Westerly winds (SWW) during the last ~2000 years.
Wallacea has a unique fauna and flora characterised by incredibly high levels of biodiversity and endemism, and which is threatened by changing land use, exploitation and climate change.
This PhD studentship will apply palaeoecological techniques to investigate long-term changes in the composition and dynamics of ancient broadleaved woodlands in Scotland and Ireland, thereby producing information that will guide the conservation and restoration of these vegetation communities.
An ever-increasing number of people use nature for recreation and tourism across all ecoregions. Those activities now threaten the conservation of 5930 species and marine coastal regions are particularly affected (Lusseau & Mancini 2018).
Increasing use is made of marine protected areas (MPAs) to locally manage and conserve marine biodiversity. Although highly mobile, with complex temporal and spatial movement patterns, many endangered elasmobranchs show site association to critical habitats at important life history stages.
