PhD Studentship (NERC GW4+ DTP) - Applying Genomic Approaches to Understand Bat Population Declines (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 O.Razgour@exeter.ac.uk

Project Aims and Methods

Wildlife populations have declined dramatically in the past century in response to anthropogenic environmental changes, but we are missing appropriate tools to study the magnitude and consequences of these declines. Genomic data can be used to estimate effective population size and reconstruct changes in population size over time (e.g. Razgour et al. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14540). Anecdotal evidence suggests that British bat populations have declined substantially in the past century due to habitat loss and persecution. However, we are missing vital empirical evidence for the magnitude of these declines. 

This project is a partnership with conservation organisations, aiming to understand the historic context underpinning contemporary bat population sizes, which is essential for setting appropriate targets for species recovery. We are looking for a Doctoral Researcher with a strong interest in ecology and genetics/genomics to co-develop the following research directions: 

1. Use our recently generated genomic datasets for bat species with different distributions and habitat specialisations to identify changes in population size and their impacts on genetic composition. 
2. Analyse changes in bat morphology over the past century using museum specimens and contemporary samples. 
3. Relate change in bat population sizes, genetic composition and morphology to historic changes in climate and land use. 

Project partners

The Bat Conservation Trust will contribute supervision time; access to in-house training resources and events; an internship at BCT of at least three months to introduce the DR to the range of work undertaken within the conservation NGO sector and support to complete a research project(s) that furthers BCT’s strategic aims; access to BCT’s long-term bat population monitoring data; support with fieldwork; support with public engagement and disseminating project findings to policy makers and conservation managers. 

Training

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

To apply, please click on the ‘Apply’ button above

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