Enhancing ecosystem functioning to improve resilience of subsistence farming in Papua New Guinea

Programme website: http://inspire-dtp.ac.uk

Project Rationale:
Increasing agricultural production in high biodiversity areas, against the backdrop of a growing population, and climate change, is an increasing challenge. Such pressures are particularly relevant to Papua New Guinea (PNG), which has the third largest area of tropical forest worldwide, and where eighty-five percent of the population depends almost entirely on small-scale, shifting agriculture. There is a drastic need to provide interventions that will deliver potential solutions to PNG subsistence farming to increase crop productivity and resilience at the same time as conserving their natural forest. This project will build on previous work in PNG carried out by Morris and collaborators, by investigating ecosystem functioning in agricultural areas and surrounding natural habitats, to determine how beneficial ecosystem services can be enhanced to improve productivity and resilience of subsistence farming.

Methodology:
Describe how the problem set up in the Rationale will be solved. Include references to method papers you want the candidate to read.

The project will involve fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, focusing on the food gardens cultivated by the local villagers, and the surrounding natural tropical forests. Fieldwork will involve both observations and manipulative experiments, focusing on above and below ground ecosystem functioning. The student will be expected to design and conduct sampling and experiments to test their hypotheses, and analyse their own data.

Training:
The INSPIRE DTP programme provides comprehensive personal and professional development training alongside extensive opportunities for students to expand their multi-disciplinary outlook through interactions with a wide network of academic, research and industrial/policy partners. The student will be registered at the University of Southampton and hosted at Biological Sciences. Specific training will include: planning and conducting tropical ecology field work, measurements of ecosystem functioning both above and below ground, experimental design and data analysis. Additional training will be provided according to the student’s research interests.