PROJECT
Ecosystem resilience of Shark Bay under changing ocean climate
Examining the effects of climate change in Shark Bay's marine ecosystem
Understanding how ecosystems respond to changes in ocean climate will be a critical component of managing marine ecosystems in the future. Shark Bay is a World Heritage Area with some of the largest seagrass meadows in the world. These meadows have a high ecological and social importance, supporting abundant and diverse animal communities, and create conditions that allow the presence of the world’s largest population of stromatolites. However, these meadows – and thus the rest of the Shark Bay ecosystem - are directly threatened by climate change, underlined by large-scale seagrass dieback following a marine heatwave event in 2011.
It is therefore a management priority to understand how changes to primary producer communities in Shark Bay will impact on ecosystem function and structure. The PhD applicant will lead a project examining the bottom-up impacts of primary producer loss in the eastern embayment of Shark Bay, Western Australia. This project will involve a range of techniques, including seagrass ecology, biogeochemistry, and molecular ecology
For more background information, see the suggested readings below.
- Suggested readings
-
- Fraser, M.W., Kendrick, G.A., Statton, J., Hovey, R.K., Zavala-Perez, A. and Walker, D.I., 2014. Extreme climate events lower resilience of foundation seagrass at edge of biogeographical range. Journal of Ecology, 102:1528-1536.
- Thomson, J.A., Burkholder, D.A., Heithaus, M.R., Fourqurean, J.W., Fraser, M.W., Statton, J. and Kendrick, G.A., 2015. Extreme temperatures, foundation species, and abrupt ecosystem change: an example from an iconic seagrass ecosystem. Global Change Biology, 21:1463-1474.
- Kendrick, G.A., Fourqurean, J.W., Fraser, M.W., Heithaus, M.R., Jackson, G., Friedman, K. and Hallac, D., 2012. Science behind management of Shark Bay and Florida Bay, two P-limited subtropical systems with different climatology and human pressures. Marine and Freshwater Research, 63:941-951.
- Smith, S.V. and Atkinson, M.J., 1984. Phosphorus limitation of net production in a confined aquatic ecosystem. Nature, 307:626-627.
Research team leader: Dr Matthew Fraser
I am a marine ecologist at the UWA Oceans Institute supported through the Robson and Robertson Research Fellowship. My research focuses on understanding how marine ecosystems will respond to future environmental changes, and in developing methods that improve the management of our coastal ecosystems. My research methods encompass marine ecology, molecular ecology, and biogeochemistry.
This project will be co-supervised by Professor Gary Kendrick at the School of Biological Sciences.
How to apply
Interested in becoming part of this project? Complete the following steps to submit your expression of interest:
Step 1 - Check criteria
General UWA PhD entrance requirements can be found on the Future Students website.
Requirements specific to this project include:
- You will have a degree in natural resource economics or environmental economics.
- Experience with non-market valuation is highly desirable.
Step 2 - Submit enquiry to research team leader
Step 3 - Lodge application
After you have discussed your project with the research team leader, you should be in a position to proceed to the next step of the UWA application process: Lodge an application. Different application procedures apply to domestic and international students.
Scholarships
- Scholarships specific to this project
-
Keiran McNamara World Heritage Top-Up Scholarship:
- $25,000 per annum value
- top-up stipend of $10,000 per annum
- an allowance of $15,000 per annum for research expenses, including research related travel
- Domestic students
-
All domestic students may apply for Research Training Program and University Postgraduate Awards (UPA) scholarships
- International students
-
A range of scholarships are available from international organisations and governments. The full list, organised by country, is available on the Future Students website.
In addition, all international students may apply for International Research Training Program scholarships.
- Indigenous students
- Indigenous students are encouraged to apply for Indigenous Postgraduate Research Supplementary Scholarships.
- Prestigious postgraduate research scholarships
-
Prestigious postgraduate research scholarships support graduate research training by enabling students of exceptional research promise to undertake higher degrees by research at the University.