University of Plymouth, England invites online Application for number of Fully Funded PhD Degree at various Departments. We are providing a list of Fully Funded PhD Programs available at University of Plymouth, England.
Eligible candidate may Apply as soon as possible.
(01) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Understanding the response of marine ecosystems to ocean-based carbon dioxide removal
The development of ocean carbon dioxide removal (oCDR) technologies, aimed at helping oceans sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide to prevent excessive warming of our planet, have attracted substantial interest recently. Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is one such example, where the addition of finely ground mineral rocks to seawater represents an acceleration of natural weathering processes and causes carbon dioxide to be drawn down.
oCDR holds much promise for helping us achieve carbon budgets, but their impact on marine ecosystems remains poorly understood. Mineral additions cause localised hotspots of low carbon dioxide, which are temporary, but impact on the photosynthesis and growth of marine phytoplankton that support the entire marine food web. A better understanding of how oCDR influences different phytoplankton types is needed to assess the wider impact of these technologies on marine ecosystems.
The project will examine the impact of OAE on marine phytoplankton, testing the resilience of various species to episodes of low carbon dioxide. Identifying these groups will help us understand how, when and where oCDR technologies can be deployed. The student will have the opportunity to learn multiple experimental techniques, including the design and application of OAE approaches. Further techniques will include phytoplankton physiology, field sampling and advanced microscopy. Full training will be provided. The student will also be able to work with a range of international collaborators examining OAE.
Deadline : Wednesday 8 January 2025
(02) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Sea to Sky: leveraging AUVs and satellites to determine floating wind impacts on Celtic Sea key ecosystem drivers
The rapid expansion of floating offshore wind (FLOW) infrastructure into deeper, seasonally stratified shelf seas like the Celtic Sea could have profound consequences for ocean dynamics, such as stratification and mixing, through impacts on ocean fronts, and hence for key ecosystem drivers like phyto- and zooplankton, forage fish, and ultimately, top predators and fisheries. Ocean fronts form at the interface of tidally well-mixed and seasonally stratified waters, providing biological hotspots. Despite their recognized importance, frontal habitats remain poorly studied and FLOW impacts are virtually unknown, highlighting the imperative for innovative monitoring approaches.
This project will utilise autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), equipped with novel sensors, and high-resolution satellite remote sensing to understand FLOW interactions with ocean dynamics in the Celtic Sea. NERC’s Autosub Long-Range 1500 AUV will collect data on shelf-sea dynamics (stratification, currents, turbulence), biogeochemistry (oxygen, nutrients), phyto- and zooplankton diversity and abundance, and forage fish distribution. These measurements will be compared with satellite data on thermal and ocean colour fronts, providing insights into their location, timing, structure and persistence in relation to FLOW.
This project can be tailored to the student’s interests, focusing on either physical oceanographic or lower trophic ecological dynamics. Training includes processing of satellite remote sensing data for front detection and the extraction of physical and/or biological data from multi-week AUV missions. Key skills gained include interpreting and linking multiple AUV-derived data streams, such as: turbulence, mixing and stratification; plankton imaging and classification; fisheries acoustics; and biogeochemistry. These skills will prepare the student for a career in marine science or environmental monitoring.
Deadline : Wednesday 8 January 2025
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(03) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: AI-driven biodiversity insight: enhancing underwater ecosystem monitoring through advanced computer vision
The health of our oceans is critical to the planet’s overall environmental stability, yet marine biodiversity is under increasing threat from climate change, overfishing, and pollution. Traditional methods of monitoring underwater ecosystems are often limited by the challenges of the marine environment, such as difficult access and poor visibility. There is an urgent need for innovative approaches that can provide accurate, real-time biodiversity data. This project seeks to harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced computer vision to transform underwater monitoring. Automating species identification and behaviour analysis will improve the quality and efficiency of biodiversity assessments, supporting the conservation and sustainable management of marine resources.
The candidate will engage in groundbreaking research at the crossroads of AI, computer vision, and marine biology, working in state-of-the-art facilities at all three Marine Research Plymouth institutions. The student will develop and refine AI models to detect, classify, and analyse marine species from underwater imagery and video. This work will involve processing data from various sources, including remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and fixed underwater cameras. The candidate will have opportunities for fieldwork to validate the models on diverse marine environments.
This project offers extensive training in AI, machine learning, and computer vision, with a focus on their application in marine biology. The student will gain proficiency in programming languages like Python and will work with AI frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch. Additionally, the candidate will learn advanced techniques in marine data collection and analysis, providing comprehensive skills set that span both computational and ecological domains. The project also includes opportunities for collaboration with international research teams and attendance at leading conferences in both fields of AI and marine science.
Deadline :Wednesday 8 January 2025
(04) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Forever in a moment: Seaweed-based nanomaterials for ecotoxin remediation
Global demand for safe, clean drinking water is growing, yet an estimated 10–15% of the world’s population still lacks access to this vital resource. While high-throughput sewage and wastewater treatments enable water recirculation in urban areas, they often fail to remove all contaminants, especially complex organic pollutants like polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These “forever chemicals,” known for their stability and resistance to degradation, persist in the environment, posing significant risks to marine life. PFAS contamination is a growing concern due to its cancer links in humans and its detrimental effect on marine ecosystems, where it disrupts phytoplankton growth and photosynthesis, leading to bioaccumulation in aquatic food chains.
This project provides a low-carbon solution by developing ultra-selective functionalised magnetic nanomaterials, derived from naturally abundant seaweed, with tuneable surface properties and pore architectures, designed to remove pollutants such as PFAS and 6-PPD, from contaminated wastewater by photodegradation. By understanding the role of nanomaterial surface and bulk properties in pollutant capture/destruction, this research seeks to revolutionise next-generation, water decontamination technologies.
The candidate will synthesise and characterise nanomaterials with highly controlled surface properties, using state-of-the-art analytical techniques (X-ray diffraction, Infrared Spectroscopy, N2 porosimetry, Electron Microscopy, adsorption-desorption measurements by Inverse Gas Chromatography) to correlate nanomaterial structure-function characteristics with depollution performance. Collaboration with industrial partners (SageTech Medical, Algapelago, Additive Earth) and academic partners (University of York, Griffith University) will support the deployment of these next-generation solutions.
Deadline : Monday 3 February 2025
(05) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Wave-induced transport and maritime pollution
This project will advance our understanding of wave-driven particle transport in the ocean by combining mathematical modelling, flume experiments, and numerical simulation. It will provide valuable insight into the underlying equations that describe particle movement on and under waves, contributing to our understanding of the dispersion of ocean pollutants such as microplastics and harmful bacteria. These findings will be critical for improving particle-tracking and other predictive models and informing future efforts to mitigate ocean pollution.
The first part of the project will explore the mathematical foundations of particle motion beneath waves. While approximations to the so-called Stokes drift exist for waves of small steepness, there is a need for new theory that encompasses more realistic sea states. This includes the study of hitherto neglected effects, such as surface tension, which play an important role for the motion of microplastics. The mathematical formulations developed will be tested in flume experiments in Plymouth’s COAST Lab. This will allow for verification of the theory and the incorporation of novel physical mechanisms. Subsequently, the developed formulations will be incorporated into open-source particle tracking codes (such as PyLag or OpenDrift), where they will be compared with existing benchmarks. Depending on the background of the successful candidate, there may be scope to employ the open source PySINDy code to identify novel governing equations for floating tracers using novel machine learning techniques
Deadline : Monday 3 February 2025
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(06) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Predicting marine biodiversity heatwave vulnerability at management relevant scales: A novel approach for adaptive conservation
Heatwaves are becoming frequent and severe, with devastating consequences for human health, economies, and ecosystems. Recent record-breaking global temperatures and multiple regional heatwaves across the globe highlight the urgent need to predict the vulnerability of natural populations to heatwaves. This vulnerability is determined by the level of heat challenge, and crucially, but overlooked, the physiological sensitivity of the organisms constituting a population. These determinants vary significantly locally due to microclimates, microhabitats, and local adaptation. Yet, they are not factored into predicting heatwave impacts, identifying high- and low-risk areas, or ultimately determining conservation strategies. Fine-scale data at the regional level, and spatially explicit models to identify vulnerable areas will be paramount in ensuring the persistence of species by protecting thermal refugia and mitigating ecological traps.
This transformative studentship will pioneer approaches to predicting the impact of heatwaves on biodiversity at regional scales, identifying critical areas for conservation of rocky shore communities, using the diversity of sites across the Southwest of the UK as a model. In so doing, it will help support adaptive management of our shorelines.
Deadline : Monday 3 February 2025
(07) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Tools to understand energy use in wild fish populations: Habitat solutions for sustainable fisheries
Partitioning of energy among interlinked processes of growth and metabolism is central to an organism’s performance. Commonly measured in the laboratory, few options exist to quantify growth and metabolic rate in the field, but this is essential for assessing the status of wild populations and therefore identifying approaches to safeguard biodiversity, mitigate climate change and sustainably manage marine resources.
Coastal fisheries are dominated by species that rely on vulnerable inshore habitats (e.g. seagrass, saltmarsh) as juveniles. Despite initiatives to protect and restore nurseries supporting high juvenile abundances, the extent to which different habitats support growth is often unknown. Scientists in Plymouth and Southampton are pioneering novel techniques to measure growth and metabolic rate in wild juvenile fishes. This project is an exciting first opportunity to experimentally validate and integrate these state-of-the-art tools towards an integrated understanding of growth and metabolism in situ, as a solution for identifying fish nurseries.
Deadline : Monday 3 February 2025
(08) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Integrating novel fishery-independent techniques to monitor the recovery of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna in Southwest UK waters
Once overexploited, Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus; BFT) have reappeared in UK waters with particularly frequent seasonal sightings in the Southwest. The Marine Management Organisation and Defra have recently launched a trial UK commercial BFT fishery. However, little is known about the impact of new fisheries on populations which have only recently recovered. Therefore, early BFT monitoring is essential to ensure sustainable management and continued recovery. Renowned for their speed, power and size (reaching over 3 metres in length), BFT are highly valuable economically, and play a key ecological role as apex predators. In the Southwest, multi-species foraging aggregations involving BFT, forage fish, seabirds and sometimes marine mammals are common and understanding these trophic interactions will inform ecosystem-based management. Quantifying key underlying biophysical drivers will lead to a more predictive understanding of BFT distributional trends in our changing ocean experiencing both ‘tropicalization’ (ocean warming) and ‘marine urbanisation’ (offshore energy).
Deadline : Monday 3 February 2025.
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(09) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Sustainable lighting for coastal cities
Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) has demonstrated impacts on biological processes in the sea. Opportunities exist to reduce the ecological harm caused by street lighting using a variety of alternative lighting strategies. This project will provide critical information for reducing natural capital losses caused by existing street lighting infrastructure as it is replaced over the next ten years. The student will undertake an interdisciplinary, holistic studentship involving natural and social sciences in collaboration with Plymouth City Council. The student will develop and deploy skills in social science, community ecology and hydrological modelling to quantify the social and ecological trade-offs of coastal city lighting.
The aim of the project is to quantify the social and ecological trade-offs of alternative street lighting strategies.
Objective 1: Review our current understanding of mitigating the ecological impacts of ALAN.
Objective 2: Model how alternative lighting strategies change natural light regimes in the sea.
Objective 3: Model and quantify how alternative lighting strategies change marine visual ecology.
Objective 4: Quantify public perceptions of alternative lighting strategies.
Deadline : Monday 3 February 2025
(10) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Swamped: Is Crassula helmsii a significant threat to wetland biodiversity?
Biological invasions represent one of the most significant threats to biodiversity. Freshwaters are disproportionately affected by such invasions, and home to a disproportionately large proportion of biodiversity, especially invertebrates. They also provide crucial ecosystem services. Crassula helmsii, a native Australasian plant, has been aggressively invading European freshwaters for over 30 years, with drastic consequences for their floristic diversity. Understanding of Crassula’s impacts on invertebrates, which make up the bulk of freshwater diversity, are more limited. Our work suggests that whilst Crassula invasion changes community composition and function, it does not lead to drastic declines in fully aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity or biomass. Much of the biodiversity in sites invaded by Crassula is not fully aquatic, however, with many specialist wetland invertebrates living in the seasonally flooded margins, which are heavily invaded, alongside open water habitats. The impact of Crassula on this critical component of freshwater ecosystems remains unknown, and there is an urgent need for quantitative data to inform management and policy.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
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(11) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Using hermit crab personality to understand the effects of human induced rapid environmental change (HIREC)
Human induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) places new selection pressures on natural populations. The strength of these will depend on the balance between adaptive phenotypic plasticity, maladaptive impairment, and individual differences in these responses [1]. Behaviour is very sensitive to HIREC [1] so understanding its effects on behaviour is key to predicting long-term consequences for animal populations [1]. Hermit crabs are a model species for studying behavioural responses to HIREC [2] including elevated temperature [1], light pollution [3], noise pollution [4], ocean acidification [1] and microplastics [5], and a model for animal personality, a framework for probing between- and within-individual variation in behaviour [1]. Behavioural responses have been investigated for individual HIRECs but in nature these do not occur in isolation. Therefore, we need to investigate their combined and interactive effects on behaviour. In this project you will conduct experiments to investigate the effects of HIRECs in combination, including examples that could be ameliorated in the short term (light and noise pollution) and those that cannot (microplastics, elevated temperature). Our central questions are: Will combined stressors amplify the effects of single stressors? How these will these combinations effect between- and within-individual variation in behaviour? Using hermit crabs as your model you will conduct laboratory experiments on individual boldness [5] and pairwise resource contest behaviour [1] and, in a field experiment, group-level interactions and resource distribution [4].
Deadline : 8 January 2025.
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(12) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Evaluating efforts to create temperate rainforest: recruitment of biodiversity and resilience to natural enemies
The British and Irish Isles have very low levels of current tree cover and what remains is frequently of poor condition [1]. The UK government has therefore proposed increasing tree cover to 16.5% in England by 2050, through tree planting and/or natural regeneration via seed dispersal. Tree planting is expensive but necessary for woodland expansion [2], yet a lack of long-term monitoring means the capacity of planted woodland and natural regeneration to support healthy and resilient native woodland is often unclear [3]. This project focuses on Temperate Rainforest, an internationally important woodland habitat found in mild and wet climates and characterised by extensive growth of epiphytes (ferns, mosses and lichens).
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(13) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Anthropogenic impacts on growth and protein metabolism in the European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax
Pollution of coastal waters by sewage is currently of major concern. However, little is known about the biological impact on critical functions in animals such as growth, particularly in combination with other stressors such as human-induced ocean warming. Growth is essential in all animals, allowing animals to reach a threshold size for reproduction and occupy adult ecological niches. Soft tissue growth in animals is essentially achieved by the synthesis and retention of proteins, an energetically expensive process, typically accounting for between 25 and 40% of the energy required by an animal. This study will make the first detailed analysis of how sewage pollution and warming seas are likely to affect protein metabolism and growth during the critical juvenile stage of development, in a species of substantial socioeconomic importance in the UK, European seabass.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(14) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Understanding the primary drivers for seagrass (Zostera marina) recovery and regeneration
In the shallow coastal waters around the UK, we have been losing a globally important, but hidden, habitat. Seagrasses are the only angiosperm that live fully in the marine environment. They provide important nursery grounds for fish, can clean excess nutrients from the water and have the potential to sequester carbon to mitigate climate change. The Ocean Conservation Trust (OCT), based in the National Marine Aquarium, has been working to address seagrass habitat loss in the UK since 2013. They are leaders at growing subtidal seagrass for reintroduction and key partners in large-scale restoration projects. Restoring habitats that have been degraded or destroyed is difficult, especially when we have limited information about the processes that govern growth and survival of the organisms involved. In partnership between the OCT, the Marine Biological Association and the University of Plymouth, this project will examine the genetic diversity of intertidal seagrass communities (Zostera marina) to understand how this determines physiological responses to environmental factors and influences growth and regeneration. The research will be used to help improve restoration success in seagrass beds and enable a faster roll-out of restoration activities.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(15) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Can land crabs be part of the sustainable aquarium industry?
Globally the tropical aquatic aquarium trade is a multi-million-dollar industry, which traditionally has comprised wild-caught individuals, although advances in captive-breeding technologies have started to change this. Land crabs are growing in popularity as aquarium/terrarium species with nearly all individuals traded wild-harvested. In recent years, a few species of anomuran crabs have been bred by hobbyists/small-scale breeders for trade through e-commerce. At the same time there have been major gains in our understanding of land crab physiology and development, and the potential for ecophysiology to inform the health of invertebrates in the tropical aquatic aquarium trade has been highlighted. This means that we now have the potential to culture healthier individuals of these species on a larger scale. This delivers the possibility that these increasingly sought-after, highly valued species will no longer need to be wild caught, significantly contributing to the long-term sustainability of wild populations, and the tropical aquatic aquarium trade. The aim of this project is to determine the conditions for captive breeding of popular ornamental crab species. Representatives of two land crab genera with different life histories and popular with hobbyists Metasesarma aubryi and Geosesarma spp. will be our model species used in this project. To do this you will (a) characterise their breeding behaviour, (b) ascertain paternity rates for captive-bred crabs, (c) follow and describe their development, (d) characterise the ontogeny of key physiological functions, namely osmo- and iono-regulation, acid-base balance and metabolism in early life stages, and (e) determine the effects of abiotic factors (temperature, salinity, acidification and/or hypoxia) on these. (f) A desk-based literature review and internet site survey will also be undertaken to assess the global trade in land crabs.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(16) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Using novel techniques to investigate foraminifera biomineralisation and geochemistry
Planktonic foraminifera are single-celled marine protists that build calcium carbonate (calcite) shells, which are well-preserved in deep sea sediments. They have existed for ~150 million years, are found in all global oceans, and have one of the best species-level fossil records. Consequently, they are widely employed for palaeoenvironmental and biostratigraphic research and are increasingly becoming a model for macroevolutionary analysis.
Despite decades of research, the mechanisms by which planktonic foraminifera build their calcite shells remain elusive. This project will utilise Electron Back Scatter Diffraction (EBSD) and in-situ chemical analyses to investigate the shell wall at the microstructural level. The aim is to better understand how foraminifera biomineralisation occurs and how these structures vary between species. This research will not only enhance understanding of biomineralisation but also provide insights into how these processes have evolved. By linking microstructural features to environmental conditions and evolutionary history, it could improve palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and our understanding of macroevolutionary trends.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(17) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Mg2+ and Ca2+ variability in seawater and the impact on marine calcifiers
The natural weathering of calcium and magnesium rich minerals and rocks over geological time scales, controls the bulk chemical composition and pH of seawater and influenced the ecological success of marine calcifiers over millions of years [1-2]. The recent global development of ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) method by which rock powders are added to seawater [3], has the potential to dramatically accelerate the changes to calcium and magnesium in coastal seas with possibly significant impacts on marine calcifiers [4]. To assess these possible impacts, we need to improve our understanding of the natural variability of the concentrations of calcium and magnesium in seawater [5] and how expected changes of these will impact marine calcifiers. The successful candidate for this project will work in the natural laboratory of Plymouth Sound to establish the first baseline of the natural variability of magnesium and calcium over ecological time scales. The results will help to mitigate the environmental impact of OAE.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(18) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Nature recovery in the European palaeoecological record
The recovery of nature is a pressing global issue. Nature recovery is difficult to predict, and different recovery strategies are implemented from tree planting to diverse forms of rewilding. Across Europe, humans transformed the vegetation of the continent through forest clearance for agriculture over millennia [1,2]. However, within that long-term transformation, multiple major population collapses occurred, in prehistory and the historic period. These collapses offer unparalleled opportunities as ‘long term’ experiments to understand natural nature recovery: reductions in population and land use pressure should result in ecological change [3]. This PhD project will develop detailed long-term data using palaeoecology and archaeology to assess past ecological recovery, using pandemics as disrupters to past human systems.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(19) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Life and Death in the Deep Biosphere
Archaea, one of three Domains of life on Earth, are an ancient form of organism that occur ubiquitously across a diverse array of environments, from oceans to extreme environments such as hot springs. A unique characteristic of Archaea is their ability to adjust the composition of their membrane lipids in response to environmental conditions, including compounds known as glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) which are comprised of 80 carbon atoms (C80) with four terminal ether groups. The widespread distribution of these lipids, and stability over geological timescales, mean GDGTs are commonly used to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions (e.g. sea surface temperature), allowing a better understanding of how climate has changed in the past, which in turn can be used to predict future change. GDGTs are also used as a proxy of microbial activity in extreme environments, which provides insight into how life survives in extreme environments, and in turn informs the search for extraterrestrial life.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
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(20) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Giant fossil landslides: hidden hazards in dryland mountains
Giant (>several km2) and fossil (difficult-to-recognise pre-historic and ancient) bedrock landslides are understudied in continental settings. Dryland environments provide long-term archives of these ancient landslides due to low erosion rates and minimal vegetation cover. The current expansion of human activities in drylands, driven by economic pressures such as mining, alongside advances in remote sensing and data processing, presents a timely opportunity to expand our knowledge of these landslides. This is essential because 1) they can pose significant hazards if reactivated by activities such as construction or mining, and 2) their preserved landscapes may reveal causes of landslides in specific geologic settings. The project aims to:
- Develop methods for automated remote recognition of giant fossil landslides by identifying landscape features such as drainage anomalies, geology, and relief.
- Understand the causes and triggers of giant fossil landslides, including geology, climate, and seismic activity.
- Assess giant fossil landslide hazards considering environmental changes and human influences, especially landslide reactivation risks.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(21) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: From the mantle to the seafloor: How do oceanic core complexes form at mid-ocean ridges?
At slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges, fault systems known as Oceanic Core Complexes [1] (OCCs) exhume mantle rocks to the seafloor, creating hydrothermal systems that directly impact ocean chemistry, seafloor mineralization, lithospheric rheology, and microbial ecosystems [1-2]. Despite their importance, the formation of OCCs is a poorly understood process which must be constrained to fully understand the how OCCs and mantle exhumation impact our oceans [1-5]. This project will address this fundamental tectonic and marine geoscience problem with a new understanding of how OCCs form.
In 2023, International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 399 collected 1.2km of rock core (U1601C) from the Atlantis Massif OCC on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge [1]. This PhD project investigates the deformation processes that control OCC formation through analyses of U1601C, focusing on the roles of ductile deformation and magmatism as drivers of strain localization during OCC formation [3-4].
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(22) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Dynamics of land-to-lake transfers in the Lake Victoria basin
The Winam Gulf catchment of Lake Victoria has historically been affected by poor land management practices leading to soil erosion, loss of agricultural productivity, flooding and downstream impact on lake ecology and associated fisheries. A gap in local knowledge/data and technical capacity to coordinate and deliver usable data tools was identified. This gap inhibits the dynamic understanding of the impact of soil degradation on soil-to-crop dynamics and subsequent impact on lake ecosystem/human health via the food chain. This is particularly pertinent given the growing importance of aquaculture to economic and food security in the Lake Victoria basin. Limited resources to monitor and regulate land degradation and inputs into the lake environment require scalable geospatial tools to direct limited resources for the mitigation of land degradation.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(23) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Monitoring and managing the impacts of extreme sediment-rich flows in fluvial systems
Project aims: (1) to quantify the spatiotemporal dynamics of sediment pulses triggered by extreme sediment-rich floods at catchment- to regional scales; (2) to explore how optimized decision-making in the hydropower sector can reduce the impacts of these events. To achieve aim (1), you will use Google Earth Engine to identify sediment pulses, analysing their timing, magnitude, and runout, while assessing the role of hydropower infrastructure in buffering or exacerbating pulse conveyance. Field-deployed turbidity sensors will calibrate and validate your observations, allowing you to apply methods at scale (e.g., mountain range fronts) and develop a new empirically informed, conceptual model of sediment-rich flow behaviours in such landscapes. In pursuit of aim (2), you will utilize open-source modelling tools with stochastic simulation functionality, like PySedSim, supported by data from your study catchment(s), to explore how hydropower sediment management strategies can be adapted to mitigate the impacts of sediment-rich flows while balancing the often-competing priorities of energy production, water quality, and hydro-geomorphic connectivity.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
(24) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Integrating modern and long-term ecology to inform UK peatland fire management in a changing climate
Climate change is increasing wildfire risk globally. In the UK, peatland wildfires have been frequent and severe in recent years(1). Peatlands are important carbon-rich biodiverse ecosystems. Wildfire can severely damage peatlands with significant environmental impacts(3). Fire has played an important role in shaping landscapes historically(2), but uncontrolled fires lead to loss of ecosystem function and reduced peatland carbon storage capacity(3). This research aims to inform future peatland fire management strategies and improve understanding of carbon loss following fire events. Information about recent and long-term past (palaeo) ecological trends(4) in response to fire, climate and vegetation change will be integrated with modern ecological research.
Deadline : 8 January 2025
About University of Plymouth, England –Official Website
The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With 18,410 students, it is the 57th largest in the United Kingdom by total number of students (including the Open University).
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