Supervisors:
Julia Blanchard (Animal & Plant Sciences, Sheffield), Mat Collins (Exeter), Kieran Hyder (Cefas) & Tom Webb (Animal & Plant Sciences, Sheffield)

Project Description

Predicting the consequences of changes in the physical environment and potential food availability for fish and fisheries, when many detailed aspects of species’ ecological and physiological constraints are not known, is challenging. Different food web modeling approaches of ecosystems have been developed to link physical and biogeochemical processes to ecological processes. These range in complexity from simple species bioclimate envelope modeling (Cheung et al. 2010, Global Change Biology 16:24-35) and size-based food web models (e.g. Blanchard et al. 2012, Phil Trans Roy Soc 367:2979-2989) to multi-species and complex ‘whole of ecosystem’ models (Fulton et al. 2011 Fish Fish 12: 171–188). The latter are limited in their capacity to resolve global-scale questions, due to high data demands and do not yet account for invasions or spatial re-distributions of new species from adjacent regions, whereas the former do not resolve the detailed species-level interactions that will be important for regional fisheries management.

Relatively little work has been done to put these different models and their predictions into a framework to quantify uncertainty or assess if additional complexity actually leads to a better prediction, as is commonly done in other fields (e.g. climate predictions). Multi-model ensembles also enable a range of plausible projections to be considered alongside each other (Collins et al. 2012 Nature Climate Change 2:403–409).

Using an ensemble approach this PhD will develop techniques to:
quantify uncertainties in projections by combining information from models, understanding and records 
of past change establish the skill of alternative (species- and size-based) models for predicting changes in the ecological properties of marine communities and fisheries across different temporal and spatial scales determine whether alternative processes nested within models helps to improve uncertainty

The project will help to improve knowledge of uncertainty for future projections of climate change on large marine ecosystems and global fisheries.  It will use global oceanographic and fisheries datasets as well as detailed long-term historic time series available from the North Sea. This project offers a unique opportunity to work with quantitative marine ecologists, climate scientists and fisheries scientists. The PhD student will ideally have strong quantitative skills with computer programming experience. The student will be based in the Dept. of Animal & Plant Sciences, Sheffield but with opportunity to spend significant time at University of Exeter and Cefas. Funding is available for 3.5 years beginning from March 2013.

You can apply to this project through Sheffield University’s online application system. Feel free to contact me (julia.blanchard@sheffield.ac.uk) with any questions you may have about the project prior to application.  The deadline for applications is January 15, 2103.

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/aps/prospectivepg/graduate-opportunities/blanchard

PLEASE NOTE: The studentship funding for this project is only available to UK/EC students. Non-EU overseas students or students interested in pursuing PhD research in any of my research areas (see my website here) should email me, with a CV and cover letter detailing your research interests.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291600-0706/homepage/virtual_issues.htm

http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/view/0/virtualissuelegacyofcharlesselton.html

Virtual Issue: Animal Ecology – Legacy of Charles S Elton
Edited by Professor Ken Wilson
July 2011

In 1931, the animal ecologist Charles Sutherland Elton (1900-1991) proposed to the British Ecological Society Council that it establish a new journal for publishing papers in the ‘neglected area of animal ecology’. In the following year, he became the first editor of the new Journal of Animal Ecology, a role he served in for nearly twenty years. To celebrate this anniversary, here we launch a Virtual Issue to showcase Elton’s ecological legacy.

Elton’s boyhood interest in ecology was reinforced by expeditions to the Arctic, the first of which was as an undergraduate field assistant to Julian Huxley in 1921. He subsequently worked as a consultant to the Hudson’s Bay fur-trading company, which ultimately resulted in his now classic work on population dynamics of the snowshoe hare, Canadian lynx and other Arctic vertebrates (systems that continues to provide productive material for our journal). He returned to Oxford University and established the Bureau of Animal Population, where he conducted a large body of work on small mammals and invertebrates, much of which was based on long-term studies at the University’s Wytham estate. During his long career, Elton published a number of seminal publications including the books Animal Ecology (1927), The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants (1958) and The Pattern of Animal Communities (1966).

Elton was a key figure in the growth of animal ecology in both the UK and worldwide. His legacy includes major contributions to fields as diverse as: population dynamics, invasion biology, community ecology, food chains, ecological ‘niches’, trophic interactions, dispersal dynamics and wildlife disease ecology. In this Virtual Issue, we highlight some of Journal of Animal Ecology’s recent papers in these fields (some of which cite Elton’s earlier work), as well as paying homage to some of Elton ‘classics’ published in the journal.

Includes:

How does abundance scale with body size in coupled size-structured food webs?
Blanchard, JL; Jennings, S; Law, R, et al

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
PhD studentship – Marine community ecology

Biogeography of Marine Communities: Beyond Food Webs and the Abundance Spectrum

A PhD studentship will be available from Autumn 2011 to research marine communities from a size-based perspective, in the laboratory of Dr Daniel Reuman. The post will be funded as part of a Natural Environment Research Council grant to Dr Reuman and PI Dr Guy Woodward of Queen Mary University of London. The post will be based in the Division of Biology at Silwood Park, Imperial College London, and will be co-supervised by Dr Julia Blanchard (Imperial) and Prof Simon Jennings of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and the University of East Anglia.

Two classic but different approaches to community ecology have developed. The food web approach describes the species present in the community and who eats whom, often ignoring species characteristics such as body mass; the approach is perhaps best represented in the terrestrial literature. In contrast, the abundance spectrum, a central tool in aquatic community ecology and fisheries management, ignores species identity and is used to quantify how population density depends on individual body mass (larger individuals are less abundant). Both approaches have the weakness of assuming spatial homogeneity of the community, or providing community descriptions that average away spatial heterogeneity.

The student’s work will be part of a broad effort in community ecology to unify these two perspectives and to help fix the common weakness of assuming homogeneity. The work will make use of recent statistical and theoretical advances of the supervisors and large datasets from whole-sea-scale, multiannual CEFAS monitoring projects. Goals include advancing our fundamental understanding of community ecology, with an emphasis on the processes leading to large-scale patterns of abundance and species diversity in food webs, as well as using this understanding to improve ecosystem monitoring and management methods used to assess and safeguard marine ecosystems that are affected by fishing activity and climate change. The project is the marine component of a grant to PI Dr Guy Woodward of Queen Mary University of London; the supervisors are co-investigators on the grant. Dr Woodward’s grant is also closely linked to research being funded by the US National Academy of Sciences, so the project represents an excellent opportunity for the student to participate in a broader program and relate results to other systems.

This is a 3+ year fully funded full-time position primarily in the laboratory of Dr Daniel Reuman at Imperial College London, with salary at least at the NERC guidelines with London allowance plus a CASE partner contribution. Some time will be spent at the CEFAS Lowestoft Laboratory. Start date is Autumn 2011, precise date to be determined.

Students with backgrounds in biological or physical sciences will be considered. Evidence of computational, statistical, or mathematical experience is a plus, as is past experience in community ecology and marine ecology.

For more information or informal inquiries please contact Dr Reuman (d.reuman@imperial.ac.uk) or Professor Jennings (simon.jennings@cefas.co.uk). To apply, please send a CV, scientific writing sample, contact information of two references, and a list of past coursework in maths, statistics, computing, and marine or community ecology with durations of training and marks to Dr Reuman at the listed email address. The deadline is 25 March 2011. Shortlisted applicants will be contacted soon thereafter. The post, start date, and interviews are subject to change if NERC funding is modified or delayed.

Institute for Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science, University of Hamburg,
Rosse Elbstrasse 133, Hamburg, Germany
9th April – 15th April 2011
deadline for applications  February 1st, 2011!

Summer school flyer
Summer school application