MSc, PhD and Post-Doc funding :
Thermal Characteristics of the South African Nearshore Implications for Biodiversity
We invite suitably qualified individuals to apply for MSc, PhD and post-doc funding to participate in
desktop and/or field research into the Thermal Characteristics of the South African Nearshore:
Implications for Biodiversity.
Seawater temperature relates at local, regional and global scales to various measures of biodiversity,
and has aided our understanding of the evolution and ecology of biological assemblages. A practical
application of the relationship between marine biodiversity and temperature is systematic conservation
planning, and in an era dominated by anthropogenic perturbations to the climate system, future
patterns in biodiversity and ecological function may also be estimated from projected climate scenarios.
Irrespective of the objectives of biogeographical research and studies of climate change/variability, it is
important that the investigations are supported by reliable, accurate and precise temperature data,
whether they are static long-term climatologies, or dynamic time series from which coefficients relating
to the rate of change in temperature with time can be extracted.
This research focuses on the static/dynamic properties of the inshore temperature regime of South
Africa, and consequences thereof for biodiversity. Although biogeographic patterns have been
compared to seawater temperatures around our coast in the past, a new data set of inshore
temperatures now makes it possible to undertake more detailed investigations into the properties of
the seawater thermal regime that structure biodiversity. This research has two main themes:
1. The oceanographic drivers that modulate the inshore (<400 m from the shoreline) thermal
regime in space/time.
2. Thermal properties of the inshore region as structuring agents of biogeographic patterns and
processes.
The project research will contribute to a number of parallel projects which we are members of, including
an Australia-South Africa study on kelp ecology, the global Kelp Ecosystem and Ecology Network (KEEN)
experiments, and our Kelps and Climate Change project.
The project is based primarily at the University of the Western Cape. Our group comprises Assoc. Prof.
A. J. Smit (University of the Western Cape), Prof. John Bolton (University of Cape Town), Drs. Tommy
Bornman and Wayne Goschen (SAEON) and a group of enthusiastic post-graduate students.
Applications
The research caters for candidates with a strong background in oceanography and/or biodiversity.
Competence in R, Matlab or Python is essential, and the willingness to participate in diving operations
will be highly advantageous.
Electronic applications and enquiries may be forwarded to Prof. Smit (albertus.smit@gmail.com). Please
ensure that applications include a i) cover letter; ii) Curriculum Vitae; iii) full academic transcript
detailing the marks for the various university modules taken; and iv) the names of three referees, one of
whom must be the supervisor of the most recent research project.
The closing date for submissions is 31 January 2015.