Alice Walker University of Liverpool
Led supervisor: Prof Kate Parr
Bruna Cama University of York
Lead supervisor: Dr Kanchon Dasmahapatra
Bryony Allen University of Liverpool
I am interested in the link between individuals’ social behaviour and their role in mixed-species communities. Currently, I am researching the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, exploring which host behaviours drive the complex disease dynamics of this amphibian-Bd system, with the aim of untangling how behaviour-modified contact rates influence pathogen transmission (between susceptible and infected hosts) in a multi-host community.
Lead supervisor: Prof Andy Fenton
Benjamin Walsh University of Liverpool
My research focuses on the impact of climate change on fertility. When exposed for high temperatures, many organisms lose the ability to produce offspring. However, we do not know how widespread this phenomenon is, and how this will affect populations. Further, little is known on how thermal stress during early life-history stages affects adult fertility later in life. I am using cross-species experiments to examine how thermal stress during the pupal stage affects the fertility of fruit flies. I am also using mathematical modelling to predict how individual losses to fertility may affect population dynamics.
Lead supervisor: Dr Thomas Price
Project page: Will the impact of juvenile temperatures on fertility alter how species respond to climate change?
Carrie Alderley University of York
My PhD project investigates the eco-evolutionary consequences of an environmentally friendly crop protection technique, biofumigation, on the rhizosphere bacterial communities. This project will focus on the Ralstonia solanacearum bacterial pathogen that causes bacterial wilt disease in potatoes, as well as many other important crops.
Lead supervisor: Dr Ville Friman
Project page: The eco-evolutionary consequences of biofumigation in the rhizosphere bacterial communities
Callum Scott University of York
Lead supervisor: Dr Penny Spikins
Christopher Taylor University of Sheffield
Lead supervisor: Dr Gareth Phoenix
Project page: Grassland Carbon and Climate Change: will soil nutrients limit carbon uptake in a high CO2 future?
Callum Duffield University of Liverpool
Lead supervisor: Prof Paula Stockley
Daniel Maskrey University of Liverpool
Lead supervisor: Dr Jack Thomson
Evelyn Taylor-Cox University of Liverpool
I am interested in the mechanisms underpinning species’ responses to climate change and the evolutionary and ecological limits to adaptation. My research specifically looks into the genetic and demographic processes of range expansion with climate change and habitat fragmentation, using two species of British Lepidoptera.
Lead supervisor: Dr Ilik Saccheri
Fiona Bell University of Liverpool
Lead supervisor: Dr Jenny Hodgson
Francesca Pell University of Sheffield
Lead supervisor: Prof Ben Hatchwell
Project page: Alien parrots: social and genetic structure of an invasive population
Jordan Jones University of Liverpool
My research focuses on the evolutionary ecology of parasitic wasp resistance. More specifically, the interplay of different defensive mechanisms – self-medication with ethanol, symbiont-mediated protection and classic immune defences. How do these mechanisms interact, both in terms of individual defence and the evolutionary ecology of resistance?
Lead supervisor: Prof Greg Hurst
Isabella Gaffney University of Sheffield
Lead supervisor: Prof Jane Thomas-Oates
Josephine Hornsey University of Sheffield
Lead supervisor: Dr Ann Rowan
Joseph Molloy University of Sheffield
Lead supervisor: Prof Grant Bigg
Lauren Mee University of Liverpool
Lead supervisor: Dr Seth Barribeau
Lucy Winder University of Sheffield
Led supervisor: Prof Terry Burke
Megan Holgate University of York
Lead supervisor: Dr Elva Robinson
Nathan White University of Sheffield
My research concerns speciation and how the dimensionality of selection (the number of divergent selection pressures) might affect patterns of local adaptation, assortative mating and genomic differentiation. I am using an experimental evolution approach with evolve & re-sequence, and work with the monogonont rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis.
Lead supervisor: Prof Roger Butlin
Sophie Williams University of York
I am interested in Palaeoenvironments and Palaeoclimates, specifically those from the Quaternary period. My PhD project based at the University of York will seek to reconstruct sea level in southeast Australia over the last 200-300 years to test the Arctic Ice Melt Hypothesis – the theory that before anthropogenic influence, melting from the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic glaciers was responsible for the rapid rise in sea level during the 19th and 20th century. The resulting “sea-level fingerprint” from melting ice is best-observed thousands of km away from the source, thus Australia should be a perfect region to see this rise.
Lead supervisor: Prof Roland Gehrels
Project page: Historical sea-level changes in Australia: Testing the Arctic Ice Melt Hypothesis.
Sean Gilgannon University of Sheffield
Lead supervisor: Dr Darrel Swift
Thea Rogers University of Sheffield
Lead supervisor: Dr Alison Wright
Thomas Sinclair University of Sheffield
Lead supervisor: Prof Lorraine Maltby
Frederick Wu University of York
Lead supervisor: Dr Niall McNamara