This PhD project is eligible for competitive funding through NERC studentships awarded to the Department. 

Supervisors
Professor Kevin J Flynn (Institute of Environmental Sustainability, Swansea University)
Dr Robin Shields (Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture Research, Swansea University)
Dr Claudia Halsband-Lenk (Plymouth Marine Laboratory)

Project description

Understanding the transfer of energy and resources through the food chain is critical to ecology. In an era of climate change and ocean acidification, an ability to characterize and model such processes is clearly needed. The construction of “End-to-End” models, required to support activities such as fisheries management, also relies on this information. Recent theoretical considerations of the operation of the peristaltic gut in consumers (Flynn KJ (2009) Food-density dependent inefficiency in animals with a gut as a stabilising mechanism in trophic dynamics. Proceedings of the Royal Society Lond. B 276, 1147–1152; doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1575) suggest that the more food a consumer is supplied with, the less efficient is the conversion of food into biomass. Traditionally models assume a constant transfer efficiency; the revised view has profound implications for our understanding and modelling of ecosystem dynamics. This has both pure and applied implications (the latter for sustainable aquaculture, for example). This project aims to examine the food-density dependant inefficiency in aquatic consumers, from rotifers, copepods, shrimps and juvenile fish. These consumers will be provided with different amounts of food of different nutritional quality. Food ingestion, assimilation and voiding rates will be determined. Experiments will be conducted in the Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture Research - http://www.aquaculturewales.com/ which has large-scale facilities for such work. Data collected from the project will be used to aid in the construction of mathematical models. Training will be given in phytoplankton and copepod culture, in nutrient, elemental and fatty acid analysis, and in mathematical modelling.

Application requirements

We are looking for a highly motivated student with a first or upper second class degree in a biological or oceanographic subject. More information can be found on our website.

References

• FLYNN KJ, Irigoien X (2009) Why aldehyde-induced insidious effects cannot be considered as a diatom defence mechanism against copepods. Marine Ecology Progress Series in press
• FLYNN KJ (2009) Food-density dependent inefficiency in animals with a gut as a stabilising mechanism in trophic dynamics. Proceedings of the Royal Society Lond. B 276, 1147–1152 (doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1575)
• FLYNN KJ (2008) Attack is not the best form of defense; lessons from harmful algal bloom dynamics. Harmful Algae 8; 129-139
• Mitra A, FLYNN KJ, (2007). Importance of interactions between food quality, quantity, and gut transit time on consumer feeding, growth, and trophic dynamics. American Naturalist 169; 632-646.
• Mitra A, FLYNN KJ (2006) Promotion of harmful algal blooms by zooplankton predatory activity. BiologyLetters 2; 194-197
• Jones RH, FLYNN KJ (2005) Nutritional status and diet composition affect the value of diatoms as copepod prey. Science 307; 1457-1459.
• Jones R, FLYNN KJ, Anderson T (2002) The effect of food quality on carbon and nitrogen growth efficiency in Acartia tonsa. Marine Ecology Progress Series 235; 147-156. 

Funding

Although there is no fixed deadline for applying to undertake postgraduate research in Biosciences, there are deadlines for the allocation of funding.  Candidates must therefore apply for a research degree in order to be eligible for the available funding.  In order to be eligible for a NERC studentship, candidates are required to submit an application before 19 March 2010.   

You may apply online or by post via the University’s Admissions Office. 

Further information

Please contact Professor Kevin Flynn for further information: k.j.flynn@swansea.ac.uk