Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS; drones) for mapping vegetation patterns and processes on peatlands

Application details:
Reference number: CENTA17-LU2
Start date: October 1st 2018
Closing date: January 22nd 2018
Interview date: Week beginning February 12th 2018

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Project description
Northern peatlands play a crucial role in terrestrial carbon storage and sequestration. They cover only 3% of the Earth’s land surface, but contain around 33% of total soil carbon. Ecosystem processes such as carbon cycling are dependent on plant community composition and function. Within peatlands, plant community composition and structure vary substantially especially at a micro-topographic scale, with associated small-scale variability in hydrological conditions (dryer hummocks, wet hollows and standing water in pools), and vegetation composition. Understanding the spatial pattern of this variation is important to link between small-scale processes and the operation of those processes at bog, regional and global scales. Mapping vegetation and other features across bogs is, however, very challenging due to the difficult nature of the terrain.

This project will use small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS, drones) to map vegetation and other features on peatlands. Small unmanned aircraft systems and SfM-MVS (Structure-from-Motion with Multi-View Stereo) are a transformative technology in ecology. They provide the unique ability to obtain extremely high-resolution aerial imagery at spatial scales of c. 1 km2, on-demand and at low cost. Loughborough University is well placed to be at the forefront of this by capitalising on our expertise in terrestrial ecology—particularly bog ecology—and geospatial technologies and sUAS. There is a large amount of scope for the student to determine the direction of the study within this project.

Find out more
For further information on this project, please see the main CENTA website (http://www.centa.org.uk/), or contact Dr Jon Millett ([Email Address Removed]).

Entry requirements
We seek applicants with a 2:1 (or better) degree/MSc in Ecology, Environmental Science, Biology or similar discipline, and experience in or a desire to learn plant identification skills. Enthusiasm for undertaking fieldwork, learning how to fly sUAS and using mapping software (e.g. ArcGIS) is also essential.

How to apply

1. Complete a CENTA studentship application form in Word format - available from http://www.centa.org.uk/apply/
2. All applications should be made online at http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/apply/research/. Under programme name, select “Geography”. During the online application process, upload the CENTA studentship application form as a supporting document.
Please quote CENTA17-LU2 when completing your online application.