Director of Studies/Lead Supervisor: Dr Helena Reinardy,
Supervisory Team: Ms Isabella Gosetto, Prof A Boxall, Dr Lucy Turner
Application Deadline: Monday, April 29, 2024
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
This project is part of the NERC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training, ECOWILD. For more details, and for a full list of projects offered under this programme, please visit:
Postgraduate Research - Studentships (uhi.ac.uk)
https://ecowild.site.hw.ac.uk/
Christmas Island is unique as it is dominated by tropical land crabs which act as keystone species, including in wetland areas which are recognised internationally by the Ramsar Convention. Two of the major threats to these wetland systems and species are pollution and climate change. This project seeks to study the combined impacts of changing climatic conditions (e.g. warming) and presences of metal contaminants on the early life stages of land crabs inhabiting the wetlands of Christmas Island. The supervisory team comprises expertise in Christmas Island land crab developmental biology, ecophysiology, molecular toxicology, and analytical chemistry as well as applied conservation management (JNCC, Ramsar, and Parks Australia).
The student will be based at the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) and trained in field sampling, developmental biology, ecophysiology and molecular toxicology. The interdisciplinary project will involve techniques of practical environmental challenges on early life stages of crabs in the lab and in the field. Analytical chemistry will establish contaminant profiles in multiple environmental samples. Embryo phenomics will train in analytical embryology and larval development, and molecular and genetic analyses will enable the student to be proficient in multiple biological level analyses. The student will also work closely with policy partners to understand how scientific findings are integrated into conservation policy.
We recognise that not every talented researcher will have had the same opportunities to advance their careers. We therefore will account for any particular circumstances that applicants disclose (e.g. parental leave, caring duties, part-time jobs to support studies, disabilities etc.) to ensure an inclusive and fair recruitment process.
We will be holding online ‘meet the supervisor’ events on March 25th, 26th and 27th – if you can’t make these but are interested in this project, please contact the lead supervisor directly.
Links to the scheduled ‘meet the supervisor’ events, as well as the full list of projects advertised under this CDT, can be found here https://ecowild.site.hw.ac.uk/phd-training/
ECOWILD is committed to making science and innovation research as equitable, inclusive and diverse as possible. This means all of us – including programme leads, partner affiliates, supervisors, students and collaborators – are eager to bring our best so that you can bring yours, too!
This is a full scholarship which will cover tuition fees for Home students and provide an annual stipend in line with UKRI recommended levels (£19,237 in 2024-25) for the 44 months duration of the project.
Due to CDT funding rules and Institutional policies, there is a cap on the number of scholarships that can be awarded to international students. Once this limit has been reached, ECOWILD CDT scholarship will only be awarded to students who are eligible for Home fee status.
How to apply:
You must apply via the ECOWILD website https://ecowild.site.hw.ac.uk/how-to-apply/
Interviews: expected to take place beginning June 2024.
Start date: Applicants must be available to start in October 2024.
Eligibility: standard UHI entry requirements apply
Project enquiries: Helena.Reinardy@sams.ac.uk
General enquiries: ecowild@hw.ac.uk