Characterising Fish Behaviour in Relation to Beaver Dams within British River Habitats. NERC GW4+ DTP PhD Studentship for September 2025 Entry

About the Partnership

This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP). The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus five Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/ 

Project details

For information relating to the research project please contact the lead Supervisor via r.e.brazier@exeter.ac.uk 

Project Aims and Methods

This study will investigate how resident fish species interact with beaver dams within a range of aquatic habitats. It will evidence fish behaviour and passage efficiency in relation to beaver dams under the scenarios often encountered in Britain as, due to high population densities and often highly modified river systems, beaver management decision making using data gathered from North American and European countries may not adequately reflect the porosity of beaver dams in British freshwater habitats. 

The study will focus on known beaver dammed sites and their resident fish assemblages. It will include both obligate freshwater and diadromous life histories. 

There is a presumption that this phase of the project would be undertaken via a combination of fish tagging technology (PIT, acoustic or combination of) and potentially hydroacoustic technology (DIDSON / ARIS etc.) to detail small scale fish movements around beaver dams in combination with traditional fish survey techniques and potentially eDNA studies, where appropriate. 

Project partners

Natural England will provide a £5k cash contribution as a CASE partner. In addition, they will provide access to internal NE funding streams that the PhD student will be enabled to bid into for additional expenses as appropriate. 

Training

The DTP offers funding to undertake specialist training relating to the student’s specialist area of research. 

Useful links

Webpage: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/creww/ 

Advert information