PhD Studentship (NERC GW4+ DTP) - Tracking the Biological Response to the Ancient South Asian Monsoon: Lessons from the Past to Inform the Future (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 K.Littler@exeter.ac.uk

Project Aims and Methods

The South Asian (Indian) Monsoon is one of the most powerful meteorological phenomena on the planet, responsible for huge seasonal changes in rainfall and providing freshwater to over a billion people. To better understand its likely response to near future climate change, we must look to the geological past for clues as to its past behaviour. In this PhD project you will join an international team of scientists in reconstructing both the variability of the monsoon and the marine biological response to this variability, over the last 4 million years. This was a time of great change in global climate and ice volume, but the response of the monsoons and associated tropical ecosystems is still poorly constrained. You will apply cutting-edge techniques to sediment cores from the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, which already have extensive preliminary datasets. The direction of the study is flexible, but techniques could include morphometric and/or geochemical analysis of planktic foraminifera, or geochemical analysis of bulk sediment. The resulting datasets would shed light on how marine organisms responded to cyclic or abrupt changes in rainfall, temperature, and nutrients and give us clues about the resilience of these ecosystems in the future. 

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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