$31,500 per annum plus RTP tuition offset for 3 years (domestic students)
Applications close 30th September 2023
The Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (HIE) is offering a research scholarship to a highly motivated PhD candidate to work on a project focussed on the role of rewilding in restoring invertebrate communities and their associated ecological functions. Australia’s ecosystems are heavily impacted by invasions from introduced carnivores, herbivores and the loss of native vertebrates. The removal of introduced species and reintroduction of native fauna –referred to as rewilding – are being implemented as strategies for ecosystem restoration. Despite this, there is limited knowledge of how invertebrate fauna and their associated ecosystem functions are impacted by rewilding. Understanding this is critical for determining rewilding success and exploring the role of ecological interactions in regulating ecosystem functions.
The overall aim of the project is to assess how the rewilding of carnivorous and insectivorous mammals alters the invertebrate communities, with a strong focus on both macro and micro-invertebrates. The student will be given opportunities to explore direct impacts on invertebrates through field observations and further develop experimental manipulations to test changes in fundamental ecosystem functions, such as herbivory, seed dispersal and predation, litter decomposition, nutrient cycling across arid and mesic ecosystems in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The student will also have access to extensive monitoring data collected by the rewilding program.
The project will be based at the HIE with the opportunity to work closely with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment’s (DPE) National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Restoration Science Team, an expert team of terrestrial ecologists within DPE’s Science Economics and Insights Division. The HIE is a research institute within Western Sydney University that has rapidly become a research leader in demonstrating the importance of biodiversity to functional ecosystems and has a strong reputation for delivering high-quality research. The project is co-funded by Western Sydney University and DPE.
For more information and to apply, visit: The role of rewilding in restoration: invertebrate biodiversity and ecological functions | Western Sydney University
