Research Associate in Quantitative Marine Ecology

We are a world class research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.

The Role
We are looking to appoint a Research Associate in Quantitative Marine Ecology to be part of the large interdisciplinary project ‘Stronger Shores - harnessing the power of nature' (https://strongershores.com/about-us/) which is investigating nature-based solutions to better protect the United Kingdom coastline and associated communities from flooding, coastal erosion and climate change.

The position will be focussed on exploring the cost-benefit of spatial ecosystem services associated with three foundational species (kelp, seagrass and native oysters, and the complex three-dimensional habitats they form) to provide nature-based coastal protection particularly focussed on preventing flood risk and preventing coastal erosion under future climate change. You will be expected to be familiar with spatial analyses (e.g., species distribution modelling), programming in the R or Python languages and to apply these to:

• Develop spatial estimates of abundance of foundational species (kelp, seagrass and oysters) under current and future climatic conditions (e.g., Gordó-Vilaseca et al., 2024).
• Use data and findings from research across Stronger Shores to assess the value of current distributions of study taxa in providing ecosystem services such as flood risk and coastal erosion reduction (amongst others) and how these might change under future climate change scenarios (e.g., Rullens et al., 2022).
• Use decision support tools to explore where active restoration is both feasible environmentally and may provide the greatest benefits from ecosystems services now and into the future through scenario testing co-developed with stakeholders.
• Communicate outputs of analyses and socialise modelling approaches with stakeholders.

For informal enquiries please contact Dr Fabrice Stephenson (Fabrice.Stephenson@ncl.ac.uk) or Dr Heather Sugden (Heather.Sugden@newcastle.ac.uk).

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