PhD Studentship: Marine Ecosystems and Biogeochemistry under Future Climate Change, NERC GW4+ DTP PhD studentship for September 2025 Entry Ref: 5432

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 ledm@pml.ac.uk

Project Aims and Methods

Addressing climate change is one of the most important challenges facing humanity. The ocean is already subject to numerous threats linked to climate change, including warming, acidification, habitat loss and more. This project will assess the impact of climate change on the marine ecosystem and its services like carbon sequestration or food production. Using the marine component of existing Earth System Model simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and similar products, the candidate will explore questions such as: 

1. How will marine ecosystems recover in a net-zero climate? 
2. How will future international climate change policy impact ocean life?  
3. Does CMIP7 improve representations of marine ecosystems over CMIP6?  
4. Could model comparison tools like ESMValTool be more suitable for marine models?    
5. How well do CMIP models capture the marine ecosystem and associated services and what can be done to mitigate negative impacts? 
6. Can climate projections be used to define sustainable Marine Protected Areas? 
7. What model development & sensitivity experiments are needed to improve marine ecosystem models?   
8. The candidate will work in collaboration with international experts in climate change impact and marine ecosystem modelling and will be given all the tools and knowledge needed to independently generate and communicate climate change research.

Training

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

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