[Aqualist] PhD position Uni Reading UK

[Scott Mooney]

Hi Australasian Quaternarists...

Professor Sandy Harrison (University of Reading) is currently seeking a PhD student to work on a project investigating the impacts of rapid vegetation change on vegetation dynamics and biodiversity. The successful applicant will receive tuition fees plus stipend for 4 years: it is available to any nationality.

Project Overview: The recent IPCC Assessment Report drew attention to the threat of future climate change for terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services. It stressed that long-lived species and species with limited migration capacity would be particularly vulnerable, and particularly stressed the threat to tree species. However, the record of ecosystem responses to past climate changes suggests that terrestrial vegetation adapts relatively quickly. The last glacial interval contains multiple examples of rapid climate climate change, the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles; some of the warming intervals were characterized by temperature changes as large and as fast as expected over the 21st century.

The goal of the project is to examine the impact of these rapid decadal-to-centennial changes in climate on vegetation patterns and biodiversity. The main focus will be analyses of pollen and charcoal records of the response of the terrestrial biosphere over the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles of the last glacial epoch based on the ACER database. In parallel, simple vegetation models will be used with inputs from climate simulations of the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles to understand the individual controls on vegetation dynamics and biodiversity. The project will also explore the relevance of past responses to rapid climate changes for future environmental impacts and conservation.

More information and the application process is described at:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AUV067/phd-studentship-in-environmental-science