School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, UNSW has just announced a new program for well-funded, prestigious PhD scholarships.
Climate change is impacting ecosystems worldwide. Many plant and animal species will not survive unless their distributions shift. However, not all species are moving and we don’t systematically understand why. This is a key challenge for understanding climate impact. In this project students will tackle important knowledge gaps: Can we use functional traits to predict species’ ability to shift distributions? Which biotic and abiotic factors are important in determining species range? Do different processes act at northern vs southern limits? And, are distributions shaped by extreme climate events, or by the average conditions at a site?
This project comes with $40,000 per year stipend and $10,000 of research funding per year. It is open to both Australian and international applicants. The expected start date of the PhD is August 2017.
Potential advisors:
– Associate Professor Will Cornwell
– Professor Angela Moles
– Associate Professor Shinichi Nakagawa
– Associate Professor Alistair Poore
– Associate Professor Tracey Rogers
– Dr Adriana Vergés
If you would like to be considered, send your CV, cover letter, and contact information to three references to Vera Banschikoff — v.banschikoff@unsw.edu.au — by 4 November 2016. For more information on the scholarship program, see here.