PhD position: Boosting saltmarsh management for fisheries species – Deadline 17 January 2023

Lead Supervisor: Martin W Skov (mwskov@bangor.ac.uk)
2nd Supervisor: Océane Marcone (ocm@pml.ac.uk)
Associate Partner: The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (https://www.wwt.org.uk)

Project Description

Coastal saltmarshes are central to environmental and social resilience, but are threatened by land conversion and climate change. Marshes are thought important to fisheries species, yet there is an absence of research from Europe, including fundamental knowledge on biodiversity, abundances and the governance systems that protect marshes for fish. Marshes are a priority habitat for restoration, but restoration is expensive and data is needed to demonstrate their ecosystem-service values, including for fisheries. You will sample saltmarsh fish across the UK to understand the importance of marshes and establish the causes for variation in biodiversity and abundances, including between natural and restored sites. You will couple environmental research to socio-environmental work, to establish which players and governance systems have a stake in marsh management. Your work will culminate with dynamic workshops, to identify the best ways to managing marshes for fisheries species. Join us to boost the environmental management of a critical coastal ecosystem.

Aims and Objectives

This PhD will address critical questions to managing saltmarshes for fisheries species, using environmental and social science techniques. You will sample marshes to ask: Is there a north-south gradient in the importance of British marshes to fish and prawns, and what are the causes? Can restoration replicate the biodiversity and abundances seen at natural sites, and which marsh features boost habitat quality? How important are marshes to fish? Saltmarsh conservation targets will not be achieved without understanding the governance system. We expect marsh-fish relations to be under-represented in governance. Are we right? We believe the route to boosting marsh management for fisheries species is through identifying opportunities for future saltmarsh management. You will use workshops with marsh managers and stakeholders to identify that route to boosting marsh management.

Training

You will receive environmental and social science training to strengthen your capacity for solving multidisciplinary challenges to environmental management. We will train you in saltmarsh field and laboratory approaches, taxonomy, and RNA/DNA analyses. You will gain skills in GIS mapping and digital elevation modelling to establish marsh landscape shapes. You will be taught sociological approaches, such as semi-structured interviews to surveying stakeholder insights and governance structures. You will learn how to distil your findings into governance recommendations for the stakeholder community. Training will include placement with the Wildfowl and Wetlands trust.

Project Structure

The project has four chapters: (a) Governance and stakeholder mapping, (b) UK-wide sampling of saltmarshes, (c) Lab-based assessment of marsh nursery importance and (c) Assessing barriers to managing marshes for fisheries species

The project will be supervised by Dr Martin Skov (lead) is a marine ecologist with Bangor University and an expert on coastal wetlands. Dr Océane Marcone is a social scientist with Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Dr Hannah Robson is a wetland fish biologist, who will teach management perspectives and host you at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Ben Ciotti is a fish biologist at the University of Plymouth, who will supervise the RNA/DNA analyses.

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.