Details
Project Description: In drinking water supply reservoirs, algae and cyanobacteria form a key component of the water system but under the right conditions can form dense blooms or produce harmful metabolites that can have significant negative consequences for water quality and risks for end users. Water Companies therefore need to monitor the algae and cyanobacteria in the water abstracted to treatment works and current algal monitoring practices involve manual identification and counting of algae using traditional microscopy. This is time consuming, labour intensive and extremely difficult in the case of cyanobacteria identification. This traditional method also may not provide the required level of information needed for water quality management and/or predictive modelling.
This PhD studentship will form part of a larger “Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Algal Monitoring” project recently funded by the Ofwat Water Breakthrough. The project is joint between four UK Water Companies, Cardiff University and the University of Bristol and will involve two PhD positions. Partners in Bristol will focus on the design, production, testing, validation & implementation of an AI system for algal monitoring. The Cardiff-based PhD student will investigate the parallel use of eDNA analysis of the algal community, including the cyanobacteria that are responsible for producing metabolites that require costly water treatment for removal. These eDNA data are crucial for ground-truthing the AI species and community data obtained by the Bristol University partners, and also to determine if the level of data obtained is sufficient for industry needs.
The successful candidate will join an established team of experts at Cardiff University with an extensive track record in using molecular techniques to monitor water quality in drinking water supply reservoirs. Perkins and Kille work closely with many UK water companies on biological water quality risk, including taste and odour metabolites, Geosmin and 2-MIB, which is arguably the greatest problem for many water companies in the UK and internationally. These metabolites cause drinking water to taste musty and earthy and requires removal by extensive treatment systems prior to delivery to the customer.
The PhD at Cardiff will include the use of eDNA to determine species community structure and associations between species to determine indicator taxa for water quality risk. Potential work will also include functional genomics to investigate causal links between taxa and water quality risk. These data will drive the determination of a predictive tool using AI for species identification that meets water industry needs to better monitor, predict and ideally prevent water quality risks prior to abstraction of water from the supply reservoir. There will therefore be close collaboration between the successful candidate and the team at Bristol focussing on the AI component of the project.
Suitable candidates will ideally have a strong background in either molecular analysis techniques or limnology, specifically algal or cyanobacteria ecology and physiology. Additionally, candidates should be able to demonstrate a good level of data analysis skills, e.g. use of neural network analysis and/or coding using R. No specific experience of algal and/or environmental monitoring is required, although this would be beneficial.
This PhD studentship is fully funded and will provide an exciting opportunity to undertake primary research that will have a lasting effect on UK water quality monitoring and management.
Please note the application deadline is Friday 15 Sept 2023, with interviews expected to be held week commencing 18 Sept 2023.
The start date for the PhD will be the 8th January 2024.
Project keywords: microalgae, cyanobacteria, harmful algal blooms, molecular biology, eDNA, environmental monitoring
Funding Notes
ofWAT Funded PhD
References
Perkins et al. 2019. Managing taste and odour metabolite production in drinking water reservoirs: The importance of ammonium as a key nutrient trigger. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479719305900
Hooper et al. 2023. The importance of nutrient ratios in determining elevations in geosmin synthase (geoA) and 2-MIB cyclase (mic) resulting in taste and odour events. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135423001288
