Biodiversity in tropical rainforests (PhD Scholarship)

Application dates

Applications close

17 November 2024

What you'll receive

• You'll receive a stipend scholarship of $33,637 per annum for a maximum duration of 3.5 years while undertaking a QUT PhD. The duration includes an extension of up to six months if approved for your candidature. This is the full-time, tax-exempt rate which will index annually.
• You will receive a tuition fee offset/sponsorship, covering the cost of your tuition fees for the first four full-time equivalent years of your doctoral studies.
• As the scholarship recipient, you will have the opportunity to work with a team of leading researchers, to undertake your own innovative research in and across the field.

Eligibility

How to apply

Apply for this scholarship at the same time you apply for admission to a QUT Doctor of Philosophy.

• The first step is to email Professor Helen Wallace, detailing your academic and research background, your motivation to research in this field and interest in this scholarship, and include your CV.
• If supported to apply, you will then submit an expression of interest (EOI) following the advice at how to apply for a research degree.
• In your EOI, nominate Professor Helen Wallace as your proposed principal supervisor, and copy the link to this scholarship website into question two of the financial details section.

About the scholarship

This PhD project will explore biodiversity in tropical rainforests in the Solomon Islands. Site differences in biodiversity will be explored along a degradation gradient, from old growth forests to those heavily degraded by logging activities. Approaches will be negotiated with the successful student and may include:

• DNA metabarcoding techniques to determine pollination networks. Pollination networks are sensitive to disturbances like logging. While traditional methods of studying these networks rely on direct observation, DNA metabarcoding techniques enable pollination networks to be studied more comprehensively and efficiently. Insect pollinators collected in the field will be sequenced using high-throughput sequencing to identify both pollinator species and the plants they visited. The resulting sequence data will be analysed using bioinformatics pipelines to assign taxonomic identities to plants and pollinators. Species interactions will be identified from the co-occurrence of plant and pollinator sequences.
• Bioacoustic monitoring of biodiversity in different forests.  Audio recordings capture vocalisations of animals like birds, amphibians, and mammals. This project will integrate machine learning techniques to analyse the acoustic datasets, to automate species identification from bioacoustic data and enable more efficient and accurate biodiversity assessments. These will then be compared across different sites.

The student will be part of a $3.5 million project working with communities in the Solomon Islands to restore tropical forests (project: Livelihoods in Forest Ecosystem Recovery (LIFER), funded by ACIAR). The project is aimed at improving our understanding on restoration of deforested and degraded forest landscapes. The project is likely to have a substantial impact on the practice of reforestation and guide policy initiatives. The student will be part of a research team comprising senior Australian, Solomon Island, and German researchers.