Supervisory Team:
Dr Michelle Jackson – University of Oxford
Dr Clayton Magill – Heriot-Watt University
Mrs Sarah Brockless – Spains Hall Estate
Mr Graham Hart – Essex Bat Group
The flux of energy and materials across terrestrial-aquatic boundaries is a key characteristic of wetlands which creates important food web links between organisms. However, these so-called ‘trophic subsidies’ will be affected by multiple stressor scenarios, with implications for the wider wetland food web and biodiversity. In this project you will quantify how these stressors interact to alter trophic subsidies in wetlands. You will then explore the impacts of any multiple stressor driven changes in subsidies on the biodiversity and diet of wetland species. You will be supervised by an interdisciplinary team with expertise in food webs, bat conservation, ecological management, and isotopes.
The successful student will broadly quantify trends in the single and combined impacts of anthropogenic stressors on subsidies in freshwater and marine wetlands using a meta-analysis, before focusing on a case-study at Spains Hall Estate (Essex). Here, you will directly quantify trophic subsidies (e.g. insect emergence) in wetlands across a gradient of stress, from established and newly restored beaver wetlands to actively farmed sites. You will then establish the consequence of any changes in subsidy timing, quantity, or quality on the bats that rely on this wetland resource.
