PhD/iPhD Animal Ecology

We aim to predict the consequences of rapid environmental change such as that due to climate, habitat loss, renewable energy growth, pollution and over-exploitation of natural resources on biodiversity and human and animal health.

We aim to predict the consequences of rapid environmental change such as that due to climate, habitat loss, renewable energy growth, pollution and over-exploitation of natural resources on biodiversity and human and animal health.

Students will also achieve iPhD exit awards during this course.

OVERVIEW

The environment is changing faster than at any time in recorded history due to a range of factors including climate change, habitat loss, renewable energy developments, pollution and over-exploitation of natural resources. These changes are having profound effects on biodiversity and human and animal health, and we need to be able to predict the consequences.

Our institute integrates studies of the effects of environmental change operating at all levels of biological organisation. For instance, at the cellular level we are investigating how environmental conditions influence physiological and molecular processes including metabolism, oxidative damage, telomere loss and the rate of ageing. This is linked to studies of how individual animals and plants cope with environmental fluctuations, and how in turn this influences population dynamics, species interactions (including those between parasites, vectors and their hosts) and community structure. We conduct both short-term experiments and long-term monitoring of wild populations (at a range of field sites including loch and woodland research programmes at SCENE, our field station on the banks of Loch Lomond).

We have many links to other research being undertaken both within the institute and the wider university. For example:

• the effect of environmental conditions on disease transmission or food production
• investigation of how animals evolve in the face of changing environments
• links with geographers, statisticians and mathematicians in the College of Science and Engineering.