About the project
The widespread reorganisation of ecological communities associated with anthropogenic activity, within the context of climate change, heighten concerns about the likely consequences for ecosystems. By combining extant data sets with laboratory and field observations, this studentship will determine the effects of multiple stressors, alone and in combination, on marine benthic ecosystems.
The UK shelf hosts a diverse and productive benthic ecosystem that is a crucial component of an intimately coupled benthic-pelagic system, with species playing an essential role in modulating sequestration, transformation and storage of nutrients and carbon that underpins the entire food web. However, benthic ecosystems are vulnerable to disturbance and are highly likely to experience a large proportional change in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning if marine policy and the management of increasing pressures on UK marine ecosystems is not correctly guided. Hence, there is an urgent need to consider relevant permutations of multiple pressures, including their synergies and antagonistic effects, to distinguish the actual effects on ecosystems in the absence of confounding variables whilst accounting for natural variability.
The aim of this studentship is to gain new insights of the combinatorial effect of multiple pressures, such as bottom fishing activity, expansion of offshore wind, and climate change, and to quantify which pressures are most influential in shelf sea benthic ecosystems. Specifically, this studentship will statistically infer the interdependencies between habitat type, an ensemble of environmental and anthropogenic pressures, and climate change from extant data sets before performing dedicated field observations and laboratory experiments to confirm, or otherwise, the mechanistic processes that underpin benthic community responses to co-occurring pressures. Outcomes will confirm the importance, or otherwise, of combinations of pressures, and will contribute to identifying the most practical and effective ways to remove or reduce specific combinations of pressures, bringing the risk of adverse impacts on populations and ecosystems below acceptable thresholds.
Supervisory team
The supervisory team includes supervisors from several organisations, including our INSPIRE Partners. Please contact the Lead Supervisor for more information about the team.
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 the School of Ocean and Earth Science. Specific training will include:
- laboratory-and field-based experimental skills in marine ecology, which include setting laboratory experiments using our state-of-the art facilities and conducting field surveys
- development and use of imaging technology capable of non-invasive quantification of structures, and species behaviour
- statistical analysis of national data archives
Through our partners at CEFAS, we also anticipate opportunity for outreach to decision-making and policy development fora, as well as having the opportunity to participate to the Cefas yearly “student-day” event which provide a platform for all Cefas-affiliated students to meet-and-greet with their fellow PhD students and Cefas senior scientists.
