MAST PhD studentship Do MPAs have a wider environmental benefit for vulnerable benthic species?
Marine Protected Areas are becoming a widely used tool in marine management. Like other European nations, Scotland is currently developing proposals for a network of MPAs for the protection and enhancement of marine biodiversity. Benthic species are the major focus of these MPAs. Positive effects inside a protected area can include the removal of unintended mortality due to fishing and other pressures so as to promote recovery of vulnerable benthos. Wider environmental benefits may also be realised if this increased biomass of priority species spills over from the protected area into adjacent waters or serves to enhance the production (export) of early life stages to other areas of habitat. Currently empirical evidence for spill over and export from MPAs is too limited to provide robust advice on the wider environmental effects of protection. The aim of this project, using data collected from newly proposed MPA sites, is to test whether MPAs enhance benthic communities in surrounding waters through larval export and spill over. To do this, the project will use visual census and benthic sampling techniques to monitor abundance of priority benthic species as part of a Marine Scotland Science before/after control/impact (BACI) study. Aslarval behaviour will affect their potential for dispersal, investigations of benthic larvae in the field and laboratory will be conducted. Changes following the implementation of MPAs will be examined within a gradient analysis framework. Potential gradients relating to larval export will also be tested against biophysical models.
The project will provide the student with broad training in field survey techniques, analysis of larval behaviour, experimental design and potentially biophysical modelling and enable him/her to bring a new dimension to the growing need to maintain the biological diversity and health of Scotland’s seas. It is envisaged that the field research for this project will involve periods at sea on Marine Scotland Science’s research vessels. The student will primarily be based at Marine Scotland Science, Aberdeen but will spend some time on the Scottish west coast. The successful PhD candidate will be offered a full-time Ph.D. position for a period of three years, contingent on a satisfactory performance, with the specific intent that it results in a Ph.D. degree and scientific publications.
If you are interested in this PhD project please send a CV and covering letter to Dr Peter Wright (P.Wright@marlab.ac.uk), Marine Scotland Science by the 10th September 2012.