[Aqualist] Ph.D scholarship ($25,118 pa) on coral reef study

[Jian-xin Zhao]

Dear colleagues,

We are looking for a first-class Honour's or MSc graduate (or equivalent) 
with a background in earth, marine or environmental sciences to take a 
special Dorothy Hill Scholarship at the University of Queensland 
immediately. We as supervisors will provide extra top-up using grant monies 
from our commonwealth-government-funded MTSRF project (see 
http://www.rrrc.org.au/mtsrf/theme_1/project_1_1_4.html), so the total 
stipend will be $25,118 pa tax free (equivalent to APAI levels). The 
standard duration of the scholarship is for 3 years with possible 6 months 
extension.  The Dorothy Hill Scholarship in Earth Sciences Discipline at UQ 
was established in 2005 by a bequest from the estate of the late Emeritus 
Professor Dorothy Hill, AC, CBE, who had a long-standing association with 
the University of Queensland which lasted more than 60 years.  The object of 
the scholarship is to provide a stipend scholarship to a PhD student at the 
commencement of their research studies in geology, particularly in the areas 
of palaeontology, stratigraphy, and sedimentology.



Our MTSRF project aims to obtain accurate information about patterns of 
coral deaths in the Great Barrier Reef over the past several hundred years 
and what coral communities were like in earlier periods. Modern dating 
methods using the TIMS Uranium-series techniques will allow accurate 
identification of when coral deaths took place particularly in relation to 
the earliest European settlement of Queensland. This information, matched 
with existing knowledge of major human activities and recent mass coral 
bleaching, will identify events that may have caused coral deaths. This 
knowledge can be used to improve management of today's reefs and will 
provide information about what constitutes the reef's 'natural' state.  Our 
recent pilot study shows that age precisions up to ±1 year (2-sigma) can be 
achieved for dead corals in the region.  The preliminary results raising the 
intriguing hypothesis that branching coral populations have been severely 
degraded as a result of farming and coastal development since the 19th 
century.



The Ph.D project has the following specific objectives:



·       Determine the decadal death rate of massive & branching corals (from 
surface sampling) over the last two hundred years (since European 
settlement);

·       Assess the causes of massive coral mortality using combined 
microstructural, elemental and isotopic parameters;

·       Determine the variation in coral community structure over the past 
two hundred years and correlate rates of coral mortality with major human 
development and recent El Niño events.



The student will be hosted in School of Physical Sciences, the University of 
Queensland and the project will involve extensive collaborations with 
researchers at Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and Great 
Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA).



Potential candidates (especially with Australian or New Zealand citizenship 
or Australian permanent residency) please direct your enquiries as soon as 
possible to:
Jian-xin Zhao (j.zhao at uq.edu.au)  or John Pandolfi 
(J.Pandolfi at cms.uq.edu.au)

Jian-xin Zhao
10 May 2007


*************************************
Jian-xin Zhao
Associate Professor
Radiogenic Isotope Laboratory
Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis
University of Queensland
Brisbane, Qld 4072

Ph. (07) 3346 9754 (W), (07) 3411 4369 (H)
Fax (07) 3365 8530 (W)
Mobile 0410683866
Email: j.zhao at uq.edu.au
http://www.uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/researcher/zhaojx.html