Marie Curie PhD studentships in Conservation Genetics and Conservation, Leeds, UK

The Earth and Biosphere Institute at the University of Leeds, UK invites
 applications from non-UK applicants for any of the following eight
 projects. The closing date is December 22nd 2005. Details on how to
 apply can be found at:
 
 http://earth.leeds.ac.uk/ebi/2006-proposals-mc.htm.
 
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 Population ecology of swarming bats
 Supervisors: John Altringham and Roger Butlin=20
 
 Many European bat species live in small colonies during the summer, with
 little or no interchange between neighbouring colonies. At the end of
 the summer colonies disperse as the bats mate and prepare for
 hibernation. Individuals of many species visit their underground
 hibernation sites from August to November to 'swarm'. There is now
 strong evidence to suggest that swarming is the primary mating system in
 several species and plays a significant role in determining population
 structure. The project will investigate how population structure is
 determined by factors such as geography, ecology and rarity, by
 comparing related species (caught at swarming sites) using
 microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA. We will compare, for example: (1)
 species with similar ecology, but greatly different abundances (2)
 abundant species with different dispersal abilities and ecology (3)
 species in cave-rich and cave-poor landscapes. A knowledge of swarming
 dynamics and population structure and an ability to model gene flow are
 potentially important in the development of conservation strategies for
 rare swarming species. The work will be carried out in the UK and
 continental Europe.=20
 
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 How important is biodiversity for carbon cycling in tropical forests?
 Supervisors: Tim Baker, Simon Lewis and Oliver Phillips=20
 
 A major focus of current ecological research is committed to
 understanding how biodiversity is related to ecosystem properties, such
 as biomass and productivity. It is particularly important to understand
 these relationships in tropical forests as these ecosystems are a
 critical component of the global carbon cycle. This project will relate
 tree structure to tree mass and carbon content, for a range of
 functional types of tree in tropical forests in Peru and/or Cameroon,
 and use these relationships to assess the contribution of biodiversity
 to current and future ecosystem properties and substantially improve
 regional to global-scale carbon budgets.=20
 
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 Dispersal, gene flow and population biology in a Namib Desert fig tree
 and its pollinator
 Supervisors: Steve Compton, Phil Gilmartin and Simon Goodman=20
 
 We have been using plant microsatellites to follow the movements of fig
 wasps in Namibia via the pollen they are carrying. On the Ugab River,
 which runs through the Namib Desert, we found that fig wasps can
 pollinate trees over 100 kms from their parent trees - pollination
 distances many times further than known from any other plant. Using
 similar techniques, but based at the Gobabeb Training and Research
 Centre on the Kuiseb River, this project will build on the preliminary
 work and examine seasonal variation in the direction and distances of
 movements (predominant winds and fruiting frequencies change with
 season), and whether the diversity of pollen donors is greater for more
 isolated trees. By quantifying the relationship between how far trees
 are apart and the likelihood that wasps can make it between them we can
 predict the likely consequences of expected future losses of trees from
 the rivers.=20
 
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 Stochastic methods for invasive populations
 Supervisor: Stephen Cornell=20
 
 The biology of invasion has repercussions throughout applied ecology and
 epidemiology, but theoretical studies have focussed on the use of
 deterministic models whereas stochastic processes are known to be an
 important component of population dynamics. While the equations
 describing spatially extended stochastic populations cannot be solved
 exactly, there has been an important recent advance (Ovaskainen and
 Cornell, Theor. Pop. Biol., in press) which enables spatial interactions
 to be accounted for in an exactly solvable limit. The aim of this
 studentship is to extend the methods of Ovaskainen and Cornell, who
 studied the case of a resident species distributed throughout all space,
 to geometries appropriate to an invading species. Topics to be covered
 include: the effect of stochasticity on the speed and the stability of
 an invasive front; the effect of locally heterogeneous habitat on an
 invasive front; the development of calculational tools for managing
 emerging disease epidemics. Case studies to test the theory will be
 sought in conservation biology and veterinary epidemiology.=20
 
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 Population dynamics and conservation of Caspian seals (Phoca caspica):
 quantification of present and future threats
 Supervisors: Simon Goodman, Keith Hamer and Tero Harkonen=20
 
 The Caspian Sea is the largest inland water body on Earth, and is the
 most important area for biodiversity in Central Asia. The Caspian seal
 (Phoca caspica), is the sea's only marine mammal and is endemic. This
 species acts as a key sentinel for the whole Caspian ecosystem and faces
 multiple threats common to the whole biota (over-exploitation,
 pollution, invasive species, disease, habitat degradation and climate
 change). Caspian seals have declined from an estimated 1 million
 individuals at the end of the 19th century to ~111,000 in 2005, with a
 breeding female population of only 20,000. This decline and multiple
 unresolved threats warrant upgrading the Caspian seals IUCN red book
 status to "endangered" when it is re-evaluated in 2006. The most
 important goal for recovery of the species is to reduce anthropogenic
 mortality, which is driving an ongoing decline of 3 to 4% per year.
 Understanding and mitigating threats to Caspian seals therefore
 constitute a key part of protecting Caspian biodiversity and developing
 strategies for its sustainable use. This project will generate critical
 data on the sources and extent of mortality, for anthropogenic
 (particularly related to fisheries interactions) and disease origins,
 and how they can be resolved. This data will be used to parameterise new
 population dynamic models for the Caspian seal population which will be
 used to develop a conservation action and management plan (SCAMP) to be
 implemented by the 5 Caspian littoral states within the regional
 framework of the Caspian Environment programme. The work programme
 includes components on quantitative analysis of seal diet,
 quantification of disease mortality rates, quantification of seal
 fisheries interactions, and population dynamic modelling.=20
 
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 Sex differences in supply and demand: endocrine regulation of parental
 effort and chick growth in Manx shearwaters
 Supervisors: Keith Hamer and Richard Rodway=20
 
 The regulation of life history parameters in response to environmental
 challenges presents particular problems for individuals of long-lived
 species, which need to ensure that the effort invested in reproduction
 each year does not reduce their ability to breed again in future years.
 It pays parents of these species to limit their investment in each
 year's offspring but this can create conflict, both between parents and
 offspring and between the two parents, over the level of care provided.
 The begging behaviour of avian nestlings and subsequent food delivery by
 parents are an excellent model for studying these conflicts. This
 project will examine the food provisioning behaviour of Manx
 shearwaters, Puffinus puffinus, focusing especially on the roles of
 endocrine hormones (corticosterone, testosterone, prolactin and leptin),
 which act as physiological signals and may provide a mechanistic link
 regulating both chick begging and parental food delivery. The study will
 assess the links between nutritional status, hormone levels and
 begging/provisioning behaviour of male and female chicks and parents,
 and how these links are translated into variation in chick growth rates.
 These data will provide a novel understanding of how parents and
 offspring resolve conflicts over levels of parental care.=20
 
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 The role of water and sediment chemistry, and parasitism in crayfish
 invasions and the extinction of the White Clawed crayfish
 Supervisors: Robert Mortimer and Alison M. Dunn=20
 In collaboration with Martin Christmas (Environment Agency).=20
 
 The UK native White Clawed crayfish, Austropotamobius pallipes is
 threatened with extinction by the North American Signal crayfish
 (Pacifastacus leniusculus). Abioitic factors such as water chemistry
 have the potential to impact populations of both the crayfish and their
 parasites. However, little is known about the relative sensitivity to
 water chemistry of native versus alien crayfish species or of their
 parasites. Our lab has recently identified three novel microsporidian
 parasites in the invasive signal crayfish, which may play an important
 role in facilitating invasion. Parasites can underpin apparent
 competition between species; they may drive the exclusion of one host
 species or may even facilitate persistence of an inferior competitor.
 The aim of the studentship is to investigate the role of parasitism,
 water and sediment chemistry in the exclusion of the native whiteclawed
 crayfish. The student will (1) test for a correlation between water and
 sediment chemistry on native/invader presence and on parasite frequency;
 (2) test for a spatial correlation between disease and the presence of
 native/invasive crayfish; and (3) investigate whether the effects of
 parasitism, water and sediment chemistry differ between the native and
 invading species. The project will involve field surveys, lab
 experiments, parasite screening, water and sediment analysis. This
 project is a great opportunity to learn up-to-date techniques for field
 survey, molecular biology (pcr and sequencing for parasite detection and
 identifiction) and water analysis. You will apply these skills to an
 important area of conservation as well as developing our wider
 understanding of invasion biology.=20
 
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 Modelling landcover dynamics: biotic and socioeconomic drivers
 Supervisors: Mette Termansen and Bill Kunin=20
 
 European landscapes are clothed in plant communities that arise from the
 interaction between biological succession on one hand and disturbance
 processes that are largely anthropogenic on the other. This studentship
 will be devoted to creating and testing models that integrates landuse
 decisions into models of vegetation dynamics at the landscape and
 regional scale. One component will be developing and parameterising
 local succession models, using maps of underlying environmental
 variables (latitude, hydrology, soils) and previous models of potential
 vegetation. The second main component is modelling the frequency, scale
 and nature of human induced disturbances, through activities such as
 ploughing, grazing and/or logging of sites. Such land use decisions will
 clearly depend on the economic incentives facing landowners and the
 existing land cover. The models thus produced will serve to help predict
 the environmental consequences of changes in national or European policy
 (e.g. CAP reform), and will be tested with reference to remote sensing
 data and field surveys. A strong background in quantitative data
 analysis would be useful in the project.=20
 
 
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 Simon Goodman
 Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology,
 University of Leeds,
 Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
 
 Tel: +44-(0)113-3432561, Fax: +44-(0)113-3432835
 Email: s.j.goodman@leeds.ac.uk
 
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 Galapagos Genetics, Epidemiology and Pathology Laboratory
 Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz
 Galapagos, Ecuador
 http://www.galapagoslab.org
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