PhD position: Linking organism traits to ecosystem service mapping to inform natural capital-based management approaches to the offshore marine environment – Deadline 17 January 2023

Lead Supervisor: Mel Austen (melanie.austen@plymouth.ac.uk)
2nd Supervisor: Joanne Preston (joanne.preston@port.ac.uk)
Associate Partner: The Crown Estate (www.thecrownestate.co.uk)

 

Project Description

Transitional and coastal waters support a suite of ecosystem services that provide benefits and are increasingly being developed and exploited. Some efforts to restore ecosystems that provide services, such as seagrass, saltmarsh, and oyster reefs are having limited or variable success. Yet in other places, similar habitat creating species, such as intertidal seagrass, are thriving – seemingly without any intervention. The varying factor that links these successes and failures may be upstream water quality. Identifying opportunities to deploy nature-based solutions to tackle issues such as water quality and pollution regulation, net zero, net biodiversity gain and coastal resilience requires an understanding of connectivity between land and seascapes (the ‘wholescape’) in order to maximise the potential environmental and social benefits. You will work with a transdisciplinary team to develop the evidence for land-sea connectivity and the effects on coastal habitats and ecosystems. Outputs from this PhD will inform cross-business discussion at The Crown Estate (and elsewhere) on nutrient neutrality and opportunities that may exist to deliver nature-based solutions.

 

Aims and Objectives

You will make a significant contribution to an emerging global theme in science by developing a conceptual framework that enables wholescape systems thinking approaches to land and sea management. You will analyse empirical and model data on freshwater nutrients and flows to track catchment to coast nutrient loads and identify connections between land and sea. How variation in nutrient concentrations impact the quality and functions of coastal habitats is of increasing concern. You will evaluate the implications for potential nature-based solutions to help improve water quality and provide other ecosystem benefits. It is important that outputs from this PhD are action focused. You will work with The Crown Estate to test the conceptual framework and outputs from your research through a wholescape business assessment that will feed into ongoing discussions on emerging policies and markets.

 

Project Structure

The PhD will be largely desk based and has six chapters: (a) a literature review and development of the wholescape framework (b) analysis of water quality flows between land-sea (c) systematic review of links between nutrient loads, flows of ecosystem services, and nature-based solutions (d) assessment of ecological responses to elevated nutrient concentrations (e) business assessment (f) discussion.

The PhD will take both national and catchment based approaches. The latter will focus on data-rich case study sites such as the Solent and Tamar estuaries, the North Devon Biosphere Reserve, and Lyme Bay.

 

Training

You will receive training to strengthen your capacity for solving transdisciplinary challenges to environmental management. We will train you in coastal ecology, freshwater flows and quality, natural capital approaches, systematic reviews and business assessments. You will work with leading researchers in each of these fields including internships with UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and The Crown Estate and to develop your skills and abilities in freshwater hydrology and the applications of your research to business.

 

The project will be supervised by:

Mel Austen (lead) is a professor of Ocean and Society working across multiple marine sectors at the University of Plymouth; Jo Preston is a marine biologist, founder the UK/Ireland Native Oyster Network at University of Portsmouth; Angus Garbutt is a coastal ecologist with UKCEH and chair of the UK Saltmarsh Specialists Forum; Toby Marthews is a code developer and hydrologist at UKCEH; and Phillip Turner is a Policy Development Manager working across the marine sectoral interests of The Crown Estate.

Information for Applicants

How to apply
Please find below the list of PhD projects which will start from October 2023. Please click on the reference code of the project you are interested in for more information and the contact details of the Lead Supervisor. You are encouraged to contact the Lead Supervisor (stated in the description of the project) prior to the submission of your application to discuss any aspect of the project/s you are interested in. This will be informal and will have no impact on any applications that follow, other than showing your interest and enthusiasm.

To submit your application, please send to cdt-summer@plymouth.ac.uk:

• A two-page curriculum vitae (CV) – please do not include personal information, such as your portrait photograph, age, marital status or nationality on your CV.. Let us know your education history from undergraduate, work experience, employment, research and publications and any other experience you consider relevant for the project. (Do contact the team at CDT SuMMeR if you have queries (CDT-SuMMeR-PGRS@plymouth.ac.uk);
• A personal statement/covering letter (no longer than 1000 words) which explains why you consider yourself to be a suitable candidate for the PhD Project advertised, what qualifications, experience and skills you have that support your application, and what your aspirations are following on completion of this PhD. Our team is strongly committed to upholding equity, diversity, and inclusion. We expect candidates to uphold these same values and contribute to a positive, safe and inclusive environment. We invite candidates to include a statement about their experience of working across disciplines, cultures, countries or groups in their cover letter. Please ensure you state the PhD Project Reference Code for which you are applying for, on your personal statement/covering letter;
• Complete the Diversity survey at the following link: CDT SuMMeR EDI Survey Please note this is for monitoring purposes only and is not linked to your application. The raw data is being collected independently of the CDT SuMMeR Programme Office by SERIO and is being collected because we want to check how well we are improving our recruitment processes year-on-year. We want to make sure we attract the best talent by recruiting candidates from many diverse backgrounds and experiences. Only the anonymised and aggregated data will be made available to the CDT SuMMeR programme office.
• Optional: SuMMeR appreciates and values differences and seeks to attract, develop and retain a diverse mix of talented people that will contribute to and benefit from the CDT. If you wish to do so, please provide any contextual information that is relevant to your prior attainment and/or your educational pathway to this point. For example, if you are returning to the education system after a period of prolonged absence, you may, if you wish, list any relevant professional experience/qualifications that you have gained. Or, if your prior attainment was affected by extenuating circumstances that you wish to share with us, please do so (up to 500 words).

The closing date for applications is 16:00 BST on 17^th January 2023.

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted by email and invited for interview, with interviews expected to take place from the week commencing the 6th of February 2023. We regret that we may not be able to respond to every applicant. Applicants who have not received a response by this date should consider their application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

Find out more here.