PhD Studentship: Assessing Managed Moorlands as Breeding Areas for Waders and Merlin

The UK government’s 25-year plan sets out to stem the decline of biodiversity and enable its recovery and we urgently need ways to help achieve this. Loss of biodiversity is seen especially amongst UK upland bird species, where there have been precipitous declines in breeding populations over the last 50 years. Upland moorlands in England, Wales and Scotland that are managed for farming and game shooting, support breeding sites for some of our rapidly declining waders, including the Curlew and Lapwing that are now red-listed species (species of greatest concern), however to our knowledge there has not been a detailed systematic analysis of the productivity these breeding sites. This PhD studentship will build on survey work we have carried out over the last 8 years on upland moorlands in England assessing habitat needs for breeding wading birds (including, Curlews, Lapwings, Oystercatchers, Golden Plover, Snipe and Redshank) and raptors (Merlin). In partnership with the Moorlands Conservation Trust -and supported by a highly skilled (and funded) field team, the PhD studentship will bring together these existing data sets, with new observational data the student will collect on where these birds nest, clutch sizes, and breeding success, and analyse them to assess how upland game and farmland management systems impact on some of our rapidly declining bird species. Through established links with the British Trust of Ornithology, the student will further assess their findings with the wider bird breeding data for England, Wales and Scotland. Studies will also be carried out into dietary aspects of the bird species studied for selected upland study sites. Here field-based surveys will qualify invertebrate populations (above ground and soil dwelling) across the study landscapes in the areas where the wading birds forage to assess invertebrate food availability (biodiversity and species abundance) and faeces collected from fledgling waders for dietary analysis through DNA metabarcoding. For work on the Merlin, dietary analysis will be carried out through DNA metabarcoding on samples collected that will include faeces (and pellets) from around the nest and throat swabs from chicks in their nests. Collectively, working with the Moorlands Conservation Trust, this information will build understanding on breeding habitat preferences for some of the UK’s most iconic and rapidly declining bird species for improving management of upland moorland conservation practices and for informing UK government Biodiversity Action Plans. The successful student will receive extensive training in conservation science, field biology, avian biology, ecology, molecular biology, qGIS and statistical methods, under the supervision of a highly experienced and interdisciplinary team at the University of Exeter. They will also benefit from working with an extremely well skilled field team in ornithology. The student with access to cutting-edge laboratory facilities and a dynamic research environment. The supervisory team has a very wide network of national and international collaborators, including academics, government, industry and regulatory bodies to which the student will have access to develop their own networks. Opportunities to present their results at scientific conferences, workshops and stakeholder forums will provide the student with valuable experience in communicating their research, expanding their professional network, and advancing their career development.