We are currently looking for two enthusiastic PhD students to work on a
new project preventing extinctions of Australia’s threatened mammalswith DNA.
These PhD projects will be based at the University of Adelaide’s
Environment Institute and Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. They will
be part of a recent Linkage Project funded by the Australian Research
Council, involving several senior and postdoctoral scientists, and
conservation practitioners. The successful candidates will work closely
with this diverse and highly skilled group of researchers.
Background: Australia’s unique mammals have suffered the highest rate
of recent extinctions of any continent. Reversing further declines, and
averting new extinctions, requires more detailed understanding of past
distributions and preferred habitats. These PhD projects will use ancient
DNA extracted from sediment and bulk-bone deposits to reconstruct changes
in mammal and plant diversity across Australian landscapes through time.
Their significance is that they will establish historical distributions
and habitats of Australian threatened mammals at geographic scales and
spatial resolutions needed for evidence-based ecological restoration.
Position 1: Establishing
past mammals and their habitats using sedimentary DNA Ancient DNA
from sedimentary archives is now providing information on the former
distribution and diversity of life that was previously invisible
in the fossil record. This PhD project will leverage methodological
breakthroughs in sedimentary ancient DNA to provide a direct window into
how pre-European patterns of mammal and plant diversity once varied across
Australian landscapes. Specifically, the successful PhD candidate will
use high throughput analysis of sediment and high performance computing to
generate inventories of pre- and post-European assemblages of Australian
native mammals and their vegetation communities at a geographic scale
never done before. This will deliver the very information conservation
organisations need to optimise future efforts to restore and safeguard
Australia’s most threatened mammals. Supervision and mentoring: will
be provided by A/Prof. Damien Fordham, Dr Jamie Wood and A/Prof. Jeremy
Austin at the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and
Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. These supervisors and their labs are
international leaders in the fields of environmental genomics, ancient
DNA and biodiversity conservation. They will collaborate with staff
from Australia’s three largest non-profit conservation organisations:
Bush Heritage, World Wildlife Fund-Australia, and the Australian Wildlife
Conservancy.
Position 2: Quantifying losses of mammals at key conservation areas using
bulk bone metabarcoding Bulk bone metabarcoding is enabling effective
species identification of fragmentary bones from archaeological and
paleontological excavations. This project will establish past mammal
assemblies by applying these new ancient DNA techniques to highly
fragmented and morphologically indistinct late-Holocene aged fossil bones
collected from caves across Australia. Specifically, the successful
PhD candidate will use bulk bone metabarcoding and high performance
computing to generate inventories of pre- European assemblages of
Australian native mammals in priority conservation areas, spanning
broad climates and environments. New scientific understandings will
allow current-day patterns of mammal diversity to be contextualised,
recovery targets for threatened species strengthened, reintroduction
programs optimised. Supervision and mentoring: will be provided by
A/Prof. Damien Fordham, Dr Jamie Wood and Dr Liz Reed at the University
of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Australian Centre for Ancient
DNA. These supervisors and their labs are international leaders in the
fields of environmental genomics, ancient DNA, biodiversity conservation
and paleoecology. They will collaborate closely with staff from the
Australian Museum and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, as well
key conservation organisations.
More information can be found here:
https://scholarships.adelaide.
Email applications to A/Prof. Damien Fordham
(damien.fordham@adelaide.edu.a
(jamie.wood@adelaide.edu.au).
This should include:
- your résumé/Curriculum Vitae
- letter addressing the selection criteria
- residency status
- names, addresses and/or email details of two referees
Damien Fordham <damien.fordham@adelaide.edu.a
