3 year PhD Studentship at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK Starting date Oct. 2010 (or after)
Heterogeneity and connectivity in riverine and riparian ecosystems – implications for climate change
Supervisors: Prof’s Dr. Doerthe Tetzlaff (University of Aberdeen), John Buffington (USDA Forest Service - Boise Aquatic Sciences Lab, Idaho); Klement Tockner (IGB Leibnitz Institute Berlin), Chris Soulsby (University of Aberdeen)
The Northern Rivers Institute, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Scotland seeks applicants for a PhD studentship. Experience in statistical and/or numerical analyses, GIS, biology and hydrology, and/ or environmental tracer applications would be advantageous.
Potential applicants will be required to submit a CV with their application. For further information about research activities of the Northern Rivers Institute please check out: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/nri.
Background: Heterogeneity and connectivity are defining characteristics of riverine networks. This has a major influence on the structural- functional relationships of riverine and riparian ecosystems. They will also play a key role in determining how such systems respond to environmental and climate change. This project will seek to integrate empirical and theoretical advancements of hydrology, fluvial morphology and ecology to understand and model these complex interactions. The project will build upon existing long-term studies (e.g. in catchments in Scotland, Germany, Italy and the US) that the supervisory team are involved in. The studentship will be based in Aberdeen, though research visits to the field sites of the USDA Forest Service, Idaho and IGB Berlin are planned.
Training: The student will join a successful research group in environmental hydrology / ecohydrology (Northern Rivers Institute, School of Geosciences) with currently 6 PhD students. The studentship will provide strong interdisciplinary training that will integrate hydrological, fluvial morphological and biological field monitoring, tracer sampling and multi-scale modelling studies within a GIS framework. The student will also receive training in other aspects of scientific working such as scientific result dissemination, writing journal articles for publication and conference presentations.
If you are interested and for further queries, please contact and send a CV to Prof. Dr. Doerthe Tetzlaff (Northern Rivers Institute, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Scotland): d.tetzlaff@abdn.ac.uk.