Studentship 1: The effects of climatic temperature change on microbial adaptation Global climate change will affect all creatures on Earth, from microbes to mammals. However, how species adapt and acclimatise to a changing thermal environment remains poorly studied. The Pawar and Bell labs at Imperial College London, Silwood Park are seeking a candidate for a 4 year fully- funded BBSRC PhD Studentship to commence in October 2014. The student will combine experiments with mathematical modelling of biochemical acclimation and adaptation to study limits to adaptation in different thermal regimes. The project will use a diverse collection of microbes (bacteria and protozoa) taken from natural environments to understand how species acclimatise and adapt to experimental manipulations of temperature over different timescales. This is an integrated 1 year MSc/MRes + 3 yr PhD studentship, with the MSc component being in Quantitative Biology at Silwood Park (http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/lifesciences/postgraduate/courselist/quantitativ e-biology). The studentship includes all fees, maintenance costs, and research expenses as set by the Research Councils for 2014-15.
Application deadline is 31 Jan 2014; For eligibility criteria, please see: http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=49520&LID=907 Studentship 2: Scaling up metabolic costs of temperature fluctuations on individuals to the effects of climate change on stability of complex ecosystems Climatic temperature first and directly impacts ecological systems by changing the metabolic rate (rate of energy use) of individual organisms. Therefore, understanding how temperature-driven changes in individual metabolism scale up to the dynamics of whole networks of interacting individuals and species (e.g., food webs) is key for predicting impacts of climate change on ecosystems. The Pawar (Life Sciences) and Stan (Bioengineering) Labs at Imperial College London (Silwood Park and South Kensington Campus, respectively) are seeking a candidate for a fully-funded PhD Studentship to commence in 2014. The student will use a novel combination of metabolic theory, dynamical network (graph) theory, and a massive database on the thermal responses of metabolic traits to address key questions about the effects of climatic fluctuations on population interaction networks underlying complex ecosystems. The study will pay particular attention to the consequences of mismatches in thermal responses of metabolic traits of interacting species on the dynamics (energy flows) and stability of consumer-resource systems. Such mismatches are becoming increasingly common as new species are introduced into ecosystems through climate-driven range shifts or direct human transportation. The student will have freedom to choose what specific questions she/he would like to ask within this framework. Some examples are: (i) To what extent will thermal responses of fluxes in complex networks of consumer-resource interactions (food webs) mirror the thermal responses of individual physiology? (ii) Will between-species mismatches in thermal responses destabilize ecosystems in a changing climate? (iii) What motifs of interaction network structure strongly determine the thermal responses of whole ecosystem dynamics, and can therefore be used to mitigate climate change impacts? (iv) What network motifs are most likely to experience species losses due to temperature changes? All these questions are fundamental for understanding the effects of climate change on stability of complex ecosystems, and will generate empirically-grounded predictions that can be tested using burgeoning data on ecological network-level effects of climatic warming. Application deadline is 20 Jan 2014; For eligibility criteria, please see http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=50484&LID=879 Also see: https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/climatechange/Public/pdfs/Studentships/2014 /2014_81%20-%20Pawar.pdf For both studentships, applications should include a CV, names and addresses of two academic referees and a cover letter. The application materials should be emailed as a single, merged pdf file to [email protected]. Thanks, Samraat -- Samraat Pawar ---------------------- Lecturer, Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus N1.12 Munro Hall Buckhurst Road Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY United Kingdom Web: http://imperial.ac.uk/people/s.pawar GCEE Page: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/ecosystemsandenvironment Email: [email protected] Phone: +44 (0)2075942213
