Title: The Psychology of Environmental Conflict
Supervisors: Steve Redpath (Biological Sciences) & Neil Macrae (Psychology)
Environmental conflicts — be they between developers and conservationists or policy
makers and farmers — are widespread and challenging to resolve. They arise when two
parties have different, strongly held views about some aspect of the environment.
Superficially, many conflicts appear to be about impacts, such as the impact of wind farms
on landscapes or of predators on livestock. However, the origins often arise from a deeper
cognitive level and are linked to attitudes and values. Our ability to tackle such conflicts
therefore depends in part on the consideration of relevant psychological factors. In this
respect, psychological sources of conflict commonly derive from the attitudes, beliefs and
opinions that individuals (and groups) hold about the environment. Importantly, the pivotal
relationship between beliefs and behaviour is complex and multifaceted. Psychologists have
long been aware that people’s expressed (i.e., self-reported, explicit) attitudes do not always
correspond with their behaviour. This is because people may either be unaware of their
opinions or not be prepared to reveal them when questioned. To circumvent these
difficulties, researchers have devised a range of measuring instruments that tap implicit
attitudes. These reflect people’s immediate evaluative responses to stimuli, responses that
are not contaminated by self-report concerns (e.g., political correctness). As such, implicit
attitudes provide a valuable insight to the workings of the human mind.
AIM. The proposed PhD will use a range of measuring instruments from experimental
psychology to explore how psychological factors, including implicit attitudes, may further our
ability to understand and tackle environmental conflict.
The student will first explore variation in attitudes towards a range of conflicts, highlighted
through discussions with policy makers, contrasting implicit and explicit attitudes to map out
variation in attitudes to conflict across systems. He/ she will then explore two conflicts of
contemporary significance in detail (wind farms & predator conservation). In the course of
the work, stakeholders, policy makers and relevant scientists will be tested to elucidate the
extent to which psychological factors inform basic understanding of current environmental
conflicts, and how implicit attitudes relate to aspects of behaviour. The student will then go
on to explore attitudes to conflict mitigation to gain insight into how different options are
perceived between groups.
The studentship will therefore help guide policy makers in approaches to tackling conflict by
highlighting variation in attitudes towards conflict and their mitigation.
This project is supported by SNH.
Title: Securing a constant supply of food in a sustainable environment
Supervisors: Dr Murilo Baptista (ICSMB)
Network flow is a branch of science that studies optimal configurations (the fastest, the
cheapest, the most reliably, the most resilient) to transfer load in a complex network, load
meaning food, electricity, water, cars, airplanes, information. There are standard numerical
algorithms to find these optimal solutions. However, due to the numerical nature of these
algorithms, they provide little help to relate an optimal solution with global or even local
characteristics of the network. As a consequence, it is difficult to realize how to make small
modifications in a food supply network in order to improve the distribution of food optimally, if
only these algorithms are to be used. Or, how to create a distribution chain that will certainly
guarantee a constant supply of food that will arrive at its destination at a minimal timeinterval, resulting in a sustainable use of resources. Or, how to design a distribution system
that is resilient under failures caused by either disruptions or attacks. We are currently
working to provide analytical solutions to these problems in linear and non-linear network
flows, networks that could be used as model for the distribution food chain of realistic
centres. This research proposal needs however the input from a collaborator who has
knowledge of realistic models of food distributions and/or who as access to data.
Title: Trophic Interactions, Turbulence and Sustainable Energy Extraction
Supervisors: Beth Scott (Biological Sciences), Vladimir Nikora (Engineering)
The climate is changing and in attempts to combat this we are looking to rapidly increase our
harnessing of marine energy. In Scotland we have 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind
and tidal resources with plans to extracting as much energy as possible making Scotland
100% dependant on renewable energy by as early as 2020. Is this level of extraction of a
natural resource ecologically sustainable? What do we need to know to answer that last
question with any certainty?
Higher trophic level marine animals such as seabirds and mammals forage disproportionally
in high energy environments. The evidence points to mobile animals using the physical
attributes of high energy environments, i.e. different scales and attributes of turbulent mixing;
to enable them to capture their prey. What effect will the decreases in the level of mixing
energy due renewable energy extraction have on turbulent structures and how will that effect
predator prey capture rates and ultimately, at all scales, the transfer of energy throughout
the trophic web?
To answer these questions needs interdisciplinary research such that this PhD will link
together research between ecological and engineering sciences in the EFS and Energy
themes. Current NERC projects run by B Scott are collecting some of the world’s first
ecological subsea data in high energy tidal environments via a range of surface and bottom
mounted multi-frequency sonar instruments which provide spatially and temporally detailed
information not only on the behaviour of mobile predators and prey around tidal devices, but
also continuous data off the backscatter of air bubbles that are caused by violent turbulence
mixing. We are suggesting a novel interdisciplinary approach to using these data sets to
investigate a mechanistic understanding of what scales and attributes of turbulence mobile
predators are using to capture their prey. This level of understanding will allow much more
certainty in the effects of, and therefore sustainable planning of the extraction of renewable
energy in our oceans.
Title: Developing proxy site condition indicators as part of a classification system for
peatland management options in Scotland – the WISE Peatland Choices model
Supervisors: Sarah Woodin (Biological Sciences), Rebecca Artz, Matt Aitkenhead, Lucy Gilbert (JHI)
There is an urgent need to evaluate, in a more holistic fashion, how our land is used. Within
Scotland, almost 25% of the land area is peatland, which holds more than half of the national
soil carbon stock. Together with shallower peaty soils, these organic soil types cover more
than 60% of the Scottish landscape. The numerous historic and current pressures on
peatlands, ranging from agricultural drainage to improve grazing in the 1930’s to
afforestation in the 1980’s to aid timber production, to the current drive towards renewable
energy schemes, all have implications for how our peatlands have been, and are being,
managed. At the same time, there is now political recognition that many of the UK peatlands
are heavily degraded and need to be restored (UK Biodiversity Action Plan), to the benefit of
both their unique biodiversity and carbon sequestration. There is currently no planning tool
that allows for a straightforward visualisation of the pressures and opportunities that the
Scottish peatland resources hold.
A recent SNH scoping review identified the available datasets of peatland condition at a
national level as well as current and historic land management. It concluded that there was
sufficient information and scope to build a management tool that would enable planners to
identify the best potential management options for a given Scottish peatland. This PhD
studentship represents an invaluable addition to the team that is currently developing such
management, and ultimately policy, tools for environmental monitoring on UK peatlands,
using remote sensing techniques. In particular, the student will join a group of researchers in
the development of the WISE Peatland Choices tool. This is currently receiving start-up
funding from the Scottish Government as part of the Centre of Expertise on Climate Change
Mitigation. The aim of the tool is to optimise peatland management practices for a given site
to optimise the ecosystem services that the site can provide. This encompasses regulating
services such as carbon sequestration and hydrological regulation, but also provisioning
services where appropriate (including being e.g. refuges for specialised species, but also as
sources of fuel peat where appropriate) and cultural services such as tourism. The rest of
the team is currently working on developing the logical structure of the WISE tool, by
structuring it around a series of site suitability indicators, which are being developed through
a process of stakeholder consultation and group consent validation. In addition, the rest of
the team are focusing on producing a classification system for peatland condition based on
the current level of physical degradation (including e.g. hydrological condition), as well as a
classification of the suitability of areas for socio-economic and cultural benefits. Hence, the
student will produce a vital part of the model not yet covered by ongoing work, yet will benefit
from the structured approach to building this management tool.
1. To develop, in collaboration with the JHI GIS team, a series of site classifications on which
to base forecasts of the best possible peatland site management scenarios on the basis of
site history, carbon and biodiversity interests and future climatic conditions.
2. To validate the policy tool by applying it and building on-the-ground ecological
understanding in a series of specific case studies in already identified peatland sites. The
sites include established, large scale, blanket bog and potentially also raised bog restoration
projects, where the student will test the policy tool in terms of successful identification of the
best management scenarios.
This second objective will include two major parts:
a) Developing proxy measures for habitat condition (including vegetation composition)
and carbon sequestration rates. This will include ground-truthing exercises on
already established research sites, using habitat condition surveys for various
biodiversity measures (see below) and carbon exchange monitoring to validate the
remote sensing approach.
b) Validation of the WISE model by predictive modelling of, and on-the-ground
comparison with, the outcomes of the application of different management strategies
in the established research sites. Here we will again have access to sites (some with
chronosequences) where the investigated management efforts have already been
applied (see below for details).
Title: Using novel solutions to deforestation to provide alternative sources of fuel,
improve food security and health, and alleviate poverty in Uganda
Supervisors: Jo Smith (Biological Sciences), Norval Strachan (Natural&Computing Sciences), Nick
Morley (Biological Sciences), Sean Semple (Medicine)
Deforestation in Uganda, due to population pressures and commercial exploitation of forests,
is resulting in scarcity of wood-fuel and charcoal. This puts pressures on the economies of
communities that have historically been reliant on a plentiful nearby supply of wood for
energy. Shortages of fuel result in increasing rates of deforestation and increased poverty as
families are forced either to spend more time every day collecting wood, to pay for fuel or to
manage without. The PhD will be based in an area of Uganda where deforestation has been
established to be due to wood fuel demand. Potential alternative fuel sources will be
considered, and the impact of switching fuel source on food security, health and household
finances will be quantified. One potential alternative fuel source is anaerobic-digestion of
organic wastes to provide biogas, a fuel that could completely replace wood-fuel or charcoal
as a source of household energy. Another alternative is to use pyrolysis cook-stoves to
reduce wood-fuel consumption by increasing efficiency of energy release, and allowing
household wastes that may be unsuitable for anaerobic-digestion to also be used as a fuel.
The sustainability of provision of household energy by different methods will be investigated
in terms of energy provision, resource use, labour and cost. The different fuel sources
impact the potential to improve soil fertility, plant production and food security through the
recycling of carbon and nutrients from organic wastes to the soil; this could be beneficial or
detrimental to soil fertility and merits further investigation. If organic wastes were not used as
a fuel, they might instead be applied untreated to the soil or composted to produce an
improved organic fertiliser. Anaerobic digestion converts a high percentage of the organic N
held in the wastes into ammonium, which can immediately be taken up by the growing plant,
but retains less carbon in the organic waste than composting. Pyrolysis burns off a higher
proportion of the nutrients, but retains more of the carbon in a highly recalcitrant form. The
potential for nutrient uptake by the plant and carbon sequestration in the soil will be
investigated with respect to alternative uses of organic wastes; application of untreated
wastes, bioslurry from anaerobic digestion, biochar from pyrolysis or compost from aerobic
decomposition in lined pits. As well as impacting soil fertility, the type of fuel source chosen
has a profound impact on human health through indoor air quality and sanitation. Changes
in indoor air quality and indicator pathogen loads due to switching fuel-source will be
investigated. This information will all be brought together in a single model of the system.
The economic value of switching to different fuel sources will be quantified and used within
the model to determine the most cost effective means of reducing deforestation in the
chosen area.
This area of research has potential for much wider application, opening up a new area of
interdisciplinary research to the University of Aberdeen. The proposed project involves an
existing collaboration with Makerere University in Uganda. Socioeconomic, cultural and
environmental factors will provide different solutions to wood fuel shortages in different parts
of Africa; we already have collaborations in Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), Egerton
University (Kenya), the Catholic University of Cameroon (Cameroon) and the University of
Cape Town (South Africa) and will pursue additional funding in these and other regions.
Different types of organic wastes pose distinct challenges with respect to adequate
treatment of pathogens; culturally diverse uses of organic wastes present different
opportunities for using wastes as fuels and different problems with respect to household air
quality; funding will be sought to further investigate these areas. This is an important issue
that is currently under-researched internationally using rigorous state-of-the-art
methodology. We see huge potential to apply the diverse expertise available at the
University of Aberdeen in this area in a truly cross-cutting and interdisciplinary area of work.
Title: HUMAN EXPOSURE TO PARASITES OF FISH: TRENDS, CONSEQUENCES AND
MITIGATION
Supervisors: Graham Pierce (Biological Sciences), Ioannis Theodossiou (Business School)
Despite the poor state of many fish stocks and alarmist predictions of the end of capture
fisheries by the middle of this century, wild-caught seafood (i.e. wild fish and shellfish) is
likely to remain a key component of human diets for the foreseeable future. However,
ensuring sustainable fishing is not the only issue. Fish products must also be safe, nutritious
and attractive to the consumer: one relatively little studied issue relates to the occurrence of
parasites such as nematodes in seafood, which can have both health-related and aesthetic
impacts. Human exposure to marine parasites depends on both the incidence of the
parasites in seafood and on the treatments applied to seafood prior to marketing to the
consumer. Underlying trends in parasite prevalence in fish are unknown but it is plausible
that anthropogenic effects on marine environmental quality will impact on fish health and
parasite burdens.
Although the incidence of human health problems (e.g. anasakiasis, which is a reaction to
nematode parasite proteins remaining in fish tissues) is believed to be low in the UK,
experience from elsewhere in Europe suggests that this is a growing issue, for example due
to increased consumption of raw fish and imported fish products. Downstream of the capture
process, potential solutions to avoid human exposure include screening of fish for presence
of parasites, removal of infected parts (e.g. by filleting) and freezing or irradiation to kill
parasites – although the latter approach potentially leaves behind active parasite antigens.
Such treatments can be expensive and there is thus a trade-off between risk and cost.
The PhD will focus on nematode worms (e.g. Anasakis spp.) in key commercial fish species
such as cod, haddock and whiting. It will:
(1) Examine the current abundance of nematode and other parasites in seafood, based
on access to research trawl samples of wild fish and analyse spatiotemporal trends
and possible underlying causes using statistical modelling
(2) Evaluate the prevalence of current health risks based on public records of instances
of fish parasite-related health incidents
(3) Conduct a risk assessment for human exposure to seafood parasites
(4) Model consumer willingness to pay for treatments to reduce the incidence of
parasites in fish products
This proposal relates to a new research area, one which we developed for an application for
European funding earlier this year. Assuming the EU project goes ahead, the proposed
studentship would be complementary; otherwise it will help to stimulate further funding
applications.
Title: to be confirmed
Supervisors: Francisco Perez (ICSMB)
Pests are responsible for the lost of a quarter of crops in the world every year. Such loses
represent a significant threat for the availability of food for a continuously growing population.
In my opinion, interdisciplinary approaches involving both experimentation and theoretical
methods will be crucial to make sure that food is available to the largest possible fraction of
population in the world. In short, my research relevant to the food security problem mainly
consists in proposing epidemiological and ecological mathematical models with the following
aims: (i) to link factors at the host level to the probability of invasion at the population level,
(ii) devise control strategies for invasion, and (iii) predict invasion from the early stage of
epidemics. I have applied these methods to study the spread of infection and biological
invasions at several problems at different scales ranging from the micro-metric porous space
of soil to larger scales relevant to systems of plants. Within this context, I collaborate with
groups involving both theoreticians and experimentalists in several universities including
Cambridge, Abertay Dundee, and Sao Paulo (Brazil). My appointment as a Lecturer in
Physics and Life Sciences in Aberdeen will start on 1 September and I believe that attending
the workshop will be a good opportunity to propose and hear ideas relevant to the EFS
theme and find possible collaborators in Aberdeen. In particular, I would like to present some
of the ideas motivated by my recent research regarding biological invasions in soil and
epidemics in both soil and populations of plants.
Title: Food as a Chemoprotective Agent: Good, Bad or Indifferent?
Supervisors: Iain McEwan (Medical Sciences)
We are developing and using call based assays to identify and characterise small molecule
modulators (natural products and drugs) of nuclear receptor function. Our primary area of
expertise and interest lies with androgen receptor signalling pathways and prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in UK men, with nearly 40,000 new cases
diagnosed in 2008, and a leading cause of cancer-related death, with just over 10, 000
deaths in 2009 (CRUK Cancer Stats). While age is a major risk factor there is also
compelling evidence that a Western Diet plays a significant role in disease incidence.
Counter balancing this are studies reporting the potential beneficial role of dietary factors as
chemopreventative agents. For example the caretenoid lycopene, found in tomatoes, has
been reported to inhibit prostate cancer cell proliferation and the enzyme 5a-reductase,
which converts testosterone to the more potent hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT). While
other dietary components, including selenium, EGCG (Green tea) and silibinin, directly
modulate androgen receptor expression and/or function. There is growing interest in the role
of dietary supplements and prostate cancer prevention/treatment, but a number of key
questions remain unanswered, including a deeper understanding of the molecules involved
and the mechanisms of action. This studentship will address these issues and will provide
training across the disciplines of endocrinology, nutrition and cancer biology and would
provide the molecular data necessary to make the case for future funding into human
human/clinical trials of dietary supplements and prostate cancer.
Title: to be confirmed
Supervisors: Xavier Lambin (Biological Sciences), Doerthe Tetzlaff (Geography), Chris Horrill
(RAFTS)
The spread of non-native invasive species (INSS) is one major contributor to global
environmental change with enormous ecological and economic impacts. According to IUCN
they rank second to habitat loss as contributor to the loss of Biodiversity. Many INSS are
established but there is a time-lag before their full impact will be revealed. Where the native
species negatively affected by INSS represent an exploited natural resource, there is a
compelling case to intervene to attempt containing and if possible eradicating INSS. In
many instance however, this is costly, technically challenging and require willingness by
local stakeholders and government bodies to pay an immediate cost to prevent future
damages. This situation has parallels with attempts to convince individual to change the
behaviour now to reduce the future impact of climate change.
This proposed multi-disciplinary studentship will use a unique opportunity made available by
the multi-invasive management program led by a partnership including RAFTS-SNH-SEPA
and Univ of Aberdeen and 14 rivers trusts that will attempts to remove incipient invasions of
American crayfish e.g. in a tributary of the River Nairn. To date eradication has not been
achieved anywhere worldwide but the cost of failure (eventual decimation of economically
important salmonids) demands exceptional measures. New approaches (pyrethroids, eletrofishing, trapping) are untested but all will have some undesirable impacts, including diffusion
of molecules in watercourses that need to be quantified and mitigated.
The project will explore the effectiveness and acceptability to the public of novel American
crayfish control techniques using an adaptive management technique, and, more broadly,
how exposure to scientific evidence and to area already damaged by crayfish (akin to a
Planet Earth exposed to > 2 C warming), involvement in citizen science modifies willingness
by the public to support action today to prevent damage (predicted by scientist to occur) in
the future.
Title: Intracellular signaling pathways integrating growth and immune systems of fish
Supervisors: Daniel MacQueen, Chris Secombes (Biological Sciences)
Infectious disease is a major concern for finfish aquaculture. In addition to impacts associated
with transmission to natural ecosystems, pathogens and parasites threaten economic
sustainability by causing mortality and negatively impacting vital production traits. The link
between disease, growth capacity and nutritional availability is established and each of these
parameters can be manipulated via artificial selection or husbandry practice. There remains a
major gap in knowledge concerning how the immune and other physiological systems of fish
are integrated at higher orders. This clearly prohibits a systematic understanding of how
practices such as vaccination, immunostimulation or selection for disease resistance will
impact growth-related production traits, and, reciprocally, how selection for growth or
practices altering growth or nutrient-availability can affect disease susceptibility. In mammals,
growth, immunity and associated processes like stress, inflammation and aging are
integrated through NF-KappaB/IKK/IкB and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways. These
conserved networks are respectively activated by cytokines and growth factors that bind cellmembrane receptors to initiate a cascade of signal transduction involving reversible protein
phosphorylation – also the major mechanism of cross-talk across pathways and physiologies.
In teleost fish, there has been little characterization of either pathway to date. This is currently
feasible, owing to extensive nuclear genome and transcriptome-derived sequence resources
available for multiple species. The student’s main objective will be to characterize the major
signaling molecules from each pathway in teleost fish, determining how genome duplication
events have shaped gene family structure during evolution. Salmonid aquaculture species will
form a focal point of investigation, made possible by the recent draft assembly of an Atlantic
salmon nuclear genome, with more complete versions forthcoming. The generated data will
inform preliminary experimental assays measuring relevant gene/protein expression and/or
reversible protein phosphorylation to provide original insights into cross-talk between the
major proteins in each pathway. The approach will involve the experimental induction of a
systemic immune response in fish selected/unselected for enhanced growth or transgenic for
growth-hormone* (where growth is highly potentiated) and involve manipulation of nutritionalstatus. The student will receive extensive training in comparative, functional and evolutionary
genomics and a range of current bioinformatic and laboratory-based methods in molecular
biology. The generated outputs will be valuable to ongoing ambitions of at least three IBES
research groups and should provide a competitive advantage when applying for external
funding for projects exploring the coordination of fish physiologies associated with disease
resistance and growth traits
* Growth hormone transgenic Coho salmon samples will be provided by Dr. Robert Devlin
(Fisheries and Oceans Canada) as part of an agreed collaboration.
Title: Re-thinking food security and food governance
Supervisors: David Watts (Geography), Deb Roberts (Business School)
Although food security has moved up the political agenda in recent years, discussion of it
often rests on poor conceptual foundations. It is often expressed in terms of the challenge of
feeding a growing world population and, although peer-reviewed accounts (e.g. Godfray et
al. 2010) usually highlight its political and economic aspects, these tend to get stripped out in
policy debate. The result is that food security has become a technical problem (Windfuhr and
Jonsen, 2005: 15) whose ‘solution’ lies primarily in the sustainable intensification of
agriculture (e.g. Royal Society, 2009). This technical definition of food security fits well with
the current (neoliberal) global agro-food governance regime, which emphasises free trade
and market deregulation.
However, its shortcomings, and those of the current agro-food governance regime, are
increasingly evident. For instance, a recent UN report concluded that speculation on rice,
maize and wheat futures markets, not food shortages, played the major role in forcing an
additional 40 million people into hunger and deprivation between 2006 and 2008 (De
Schutter, 2010). The benefits of food trade liberalisation have long been questioned by the
Food and Agriculture Organization (2003: 16-17) and aspects of it are resisted by the
European Union (EU). The EU has advanced, through its Common Agricultural Policy, an
alternative vision based on the concept of multifunctionality, which requires the continued
presence of large numbers of relatively small farms to produce non-commodity outputs that
could cease to be provided under conditions of market liberalisation (Potter and Burney,
2002).
Against this background, the PhD will evaluate critically both recent and historic
conceptualisations of food security from across the sciences and social sciences and relate
these to alternative concepts, including multifunctionality and food sovereignty (which aims
to move ‘toward an agriculture based agroecological principles, that is sustainable, and that
is based on respect for and is in equilibrium with nature, local customs and traditional
farming knowledges’ (Rosset, 2009: 192; Lee 2007)). Its aim is to lay the theoretical
groundwork for a political economy of food security that is better suited to the challenges
facing the agro-food sector.
Title: Estuarine biogeochemistry in a changing hydrological environment
Supervisors: Daniel J Mayor (Oceanlab), Doerthe Tetzlaff (Geosciences) and Barry Thornton (JHI)
Estuaries are net heterotrophic systems and represent a significant source of CO2 to the
atmosphere. CO2 emissions from these ecosystems originate principally from bacterial
respiration, yet the source of their metabolic substrates remains poorly constrained. Our
limited understanding of estuarine biogeochemistry confounds our ability to predict how
changing patterns of precipitation and sea-level rise will impact upon estuarine
biogeochemistry and the fate of organic carbon.
This ambitious project brings together expertise in biogeochemistry (Mayor), environmental
hydrology (Tetzlaff) and isotopic tracer techniques (Mayor, Tetzlaff, Thornton) from across 3
research institutes to address these challenges. It aims to investigate, for the first time, the
links between catchment-scale hydrology in terms of water and particle flow, storage and
release, the supply of OC and the biogeochemistry of estuarine sediments by combining
state of art approaches from different disciplines in a novel way.
The student will join successful research groups in SBS and environmental hydrology (NRI,
School of Geosciences). The studentship will provide strong interdisciplinary training that will
integrate hydrological field monitoring, tracer sampling and incubation experiments, multiscale modelling studies within a GIS framework. We anticipate that the research student will
be able to establish a correlative link between hydrology, the supply of OC and estuarine
biogeochemistry; deriving a detailed, mechanistic understanding will likely be beyond the
scope of a single PhD project. We therefore plan to utilise the knowledge gained from this
work to underpin a larger grant application (to NERC, the Royal Society or Leverhulme
Trust) that specifically aims to establish a mechanistic understanding of how variability in
hydrology influences the supply of different classes of organic compounds into a catchment,
and how these drive changes in estuarine biogeochemistry through their impacts on
microbial community structure.
Title: Tracking antibiotic resistance through the food chain
Supervisors: Karen Scott (Rowett), Ken Forbes (Medical Sciences)
The widespread use of antimicrobial agents, both as therapeutic and prophylactic agents,
means that it is increasingly difficult to control infections due to the prevalence of bacterial
resistance. The selection pressure exerted drives both the spread of existing genes and the
evolution of new genes, often conferring a higher resistance phenotype. Campylobacter is
the most common cause of gastrointestinal infections in Scotland, and the UK, and is carried
by many wild and domestic animals and birds, including a large percentage (up to 90%) of
poultry destined for human consumption. The carriage of antibiotic resistance (specifically
tetracycline resistance and erythromycin resistance genes) in Campylobacter is also
increasing. Campylobacter isolates frequently contain the tet(O) resistance gene, which is
also the parent gene for a vast number of mosaic tetracycline resistance genes. This
research is relevant worldwide, but has specific implications for health within the rural
communities found in Scotland.
In this project we wish to track the spread of resistant bacteria and resistance genes ‘from
farm to fork’, and gain an understanding of the implications of direct selective pressure on
the evolution of novel, highly resistant genes. To this end the large collection of clinical,
environmental and food isolates of Campylobacter held by Dr Forbes will be screened for
bacterial resistance, and any resistant isolates further investigated. Specific genes present
on the bacterial isolates will be fully identified in order to confirm the hypothesis that mosaic
forms of the genes evolve under intense selective pressure exerted by antibiotic exposure.
Since mosaic genes confer a greater antibiotic resistance, their evolution is clinically
important. This will require screening new sets of samples from either traditional or
organically reared farms, to track specific resistance genes and bacteria, from samples
isolated all around the farms, through to the final product on the supermarket shelf. This
information will enable us to determine whether the same bacterial isolates, and/or genes,
are present in samples from different locations, providing information on both bacterial and
gene spread.
Title: Could the Scottish blaeberry be used to prevent the cognitive decline in a
mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.
Supervisors: Nimesh Mody (Medical Sciences), Nigel Hoggard (Rowett), Bettina Platt (Medical
Sciences), Mirela Delibegovic (Medical Sciences)
Why? The number of people with dementia is steadily increasing with an ageing
population. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 60-80% of cases of dementia. Metabolic
disturbance appears to be a fundamental factor driving both cardiovascular disorders and
neurodegeneration. Both AD and mild cognitive impairment are associated with increased
levels of oxidative stress biomarkers. The presence of insulin resistance and diabetes
increases the risk for AD substantially.
Dietary approaches hold promise as effective and safe preventive interventions.
Moreover, dietary factors have been shown to mitigate specific mechanisms of
neurodegeneration eg. polyphenol consumption is important in this regard, and
epidemiological studies indicate that consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with
lower risk of neurodegenerative disorders and better cognitive performance in the elderly.
Furthermore, there is preclinical evidence that blueberry supplementation enhances memory
and motor performance in aged animals.
Blaeberry – a small, dark blue berry which is part of the blueberry family and can be
found most abundantly in the north and west Highlands of Scotland. Dr Nigel Hoggard is
currently performing studies to investigate whether a blaeberry extract could be used to treat
type 2 diabetes in humans. The proposal aims to extend these studies to study cognitive
decline in association with metabolic disturbances in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s
disease.
Preliminary Proposal
We propose a chronic intervention in a mouse model of
established Alzheimer’s disease (e.g. Jax APP/PSEN, PLB1 or PLB4)
End point measurements:
-
prevention of decline in cognitive functions
changes in glucose homeostasis/insulin sensitivity
markers of inflammation/oxidative stress in tissues.
Complimentary cell culture experiments using a primary neuronal cultures/neuronal cell line
to test the ability of blaeberry extract at relevant physiological concentrations to ameliorate
the neuronal damage caused by oxidative stress.
Title: Food Security Policies and Environmental Change: Exploring Climate Change
Scenarios
Supervisors: Maria Lozada (JHI), Alessandro Gimona, Iain Brown
The general idea is to use a PhD studentship with views to develop a broader comparative
research project about policies of food security in three countries (Mexico, France and
Scotland; and/or eventually others) in a changing climate. This research is to combine
qualitative and quantitative methods, GIS, Scenarios of future land uses and Game theory.
The project would therefore be an ideal opportunity to develop collaborations between
researchers at JHI and from both the College of Physical Sciences and the College of Arts
and Social Sciences at the University of Aberdeen.
The general research question would be along these lines: how do food security policies in
different countries aim to address land use changes given climate change and their supply of
food issues (e.g. do they think in future land use changes?; do they aim at self-support for
food security?; do they aim at food security through imports?; What are their comparative
advantages now and how will these change in the future – what are the new opportunities
and the new challenges, and how are they thinking to manage these?).
The PhD studentship pilot project would be focused on developing GIS scenarios for food
security and future land use changes associated with climate change predictions. The
research would therefore require a person with strong GIS training and/or experimental
economics and complex systems mathematics.
Title: Modelling dietary scenarios for future food security and understanding what are
sustainable diets by incorporating wider environmental concerns and health.
Supervisors: Jennie Macdiarmid (Rowett)
The concept of sustainable diets is highly relevant for future food security but poorly
understood, not least because ‘sustainable’ can mean many different things depending on
the context it is being used and who is using it. A sustainable diet was defined by the FAO
in 2010 as “... those diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and
nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations. Sustainable diets are
protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible,
economically fair and affordable; nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy; while optimizing
natural and human resources”.
The challenge is to bring together the different
environmental, nutritional and social elements of sustainability into something that can be
used to guide food choices and inform policy. Bring these elements together is critically
important to avoid unintended consequences arising from action in one area which could
potentially be detrimental in another area. For example, reducing red meat consumption
would be reduce greenhouse gas emissions but with a significant proportion of young girls
and women in the UK having low iron status this could be detrimental for health. Similarly, if
as a population we were to achieve the recommended intake of fruit and vegetables this
would increase demand which has the potential to put additional pressure on already water
scare countries producing these commodities. One way to explore these issues together is
to use mathematical modelling and attempt to balance the different elements of sustainability
in order to produce the optimum outcome. Work has previously been done using linear
programming to optimise diets that meet dietary requirements for health while minimising
greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of the PhD project would be to develop further the
mathematical modelling programme we have be using to add in other elements of
sustainability, as well as identify relevant data sources for other elements such as water use,
land use, socio-economic implications. Depending on availably of data different future
scenarios could be modelled as well as exploring what this could mean for different
countries.
Collaborators: The ideal collaborators have yet to be sought but this PhD project would
require expertise in mathematical modelling/bioinformatics, nutrition and health and
environmental issues related to food security. These could come from across college
collaborations, for example the Rowett, Physical Sciences (mathematics?), Biological and
Environmental Sciences, as well as external links with the James Hutton Institute or BIOSS.
Title: Solid State Chemical Strategies for Regeneration of Waste Ammonium for
Applications in Food Security
Supervisors: Graeme Paton (Biological Sciences) and Donald Macphee (Chemistry)
As demand for arable production rises globally so does the need for secure and sustainable
sources of nitrogen, phosphorus and other essential nutrients. In the case of nitrogen (N),
current agronomical strategies have a reliance on mineral N (nitrate or ammonium)
generated by “carbon heavy” processes. This is neither commercially or environmentally
viable in the long term. While field research has begun to focus on more sustainable soil
husbandry to increased yields of N mineralisation, another strategy is to convert “waste N”
into “usable N”. Most municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants remove
significant amounts of ammonium-N to improve water quality such that it can be discharged
to water courses. This N is frequently converted to nitrogenous gases and released into the
environment; enhancing greenhouse emissions and losing a potentially valuable resource.
Macphee and Paton have collaborated in the removal of heavy metals from wastewaters and
the oxidative potential of novel techniques for treating pathogen and organically enriched
waters. By combining these strategies it may be possible to selectively and quantitatively
sorb ammonium from wastewaters, to clean and concentrate the ammonium and then to
release this into the soil matrix (Figure 1). The studentship offers an excellent training at the
interface between the environment and solid-state chemistry.
1.Ammonium
Rich Waste
streams

2.Sustainable
Techniques to
Capture
Ammonium

3.Techniques to
Desorb
Ammonium

4.Application to
Soils
Figure 1- Summary of the key stages in the development and application of the project
Step 1 is proven and the data for the UK, in terms of mass and volume of ammonium in
processed waters are maintained by the EA and SEPA. Step 2 and 3 will require about 20
months of empirical testing with a range of reagents across a set of ammonium doses. This
will also require a stage of “cost/ benefit” analysis as it is crucial that the optimised medium
and the performance are competitive with current technologies. Step 4 will take up to 12
months as the release of ammonium back into the soil will be a function of a range of
physicochemical parameters and will need to be related to soil type, season, climate and
cropping demands.
Title: The flux and the vole: linking ecosystem engineering by an endangered species,
soils processes and hydrology in peat-land
Supervisors: Xavier Lambin (Biological Sciences), Doerthe Tetzlaff (Geosciences), Dave Johnson
(Biological Sciences)
The project will, for the first time, rigorously quantify the dynamics, including time lags, in the
loss and recovery of ecosystem function and services provided by an ecosystem engineer
semi-fossorial rodent in riparian, carbon-rich peat-lands of northern Scotland where the
water voles remains abundant. This will be achieved by combining the expertise of
ecologists, environmental hydrologists and soil scientists to produce comprehensive models
of ecosystem function at local and metapopulation scales using field and laboratory
hydrological and soil measurements – linked in a novel, integrative way - from areas where
the species is extant, extinct, recently reintroduced or has always been absent. The project
has the following 4 research objectives:
·
To quantify burrow dynamics in relation to water vole presence using field estimates of
burrow creation rates in relation to water vole colony size and burrow decay rate in
colonies with or without water voles to parameterise state space models of the physical
impact of an ecosystem engineer.
 To measure the effects of hydrologic flow paths and their connectivity using tracer
approaches via precipitation collectors, sampling of soil, ground- and stream-waters and
synoptic sampling throughout the study catchment
 To develop a tracer-based empirical understanding of catchment function that can be
used to inform and constrain low-parameter hydrological models
·
·
·
To elucidate the relative contributions of different impacts of burrows on hydrology, soil
properties and nutrient export through drying, deposition and mobilization of scarce
mineral nutrients in faeces and underground food stores so as to relate impact to the age
of burrows.
To characterise the impact of the physical and biophysical impact of engineering
impact on plant communities in water vole colonies with different chrono-sequences of
occupancy.
To quantify the interrelation between the spatial metapopulation dynamics of water
voles at a regional scale and nutrient dynamics. To extend this analysis to quantify the
impact of the past or impending loss of this species on soil and plant dynamics.
The project combines concepts from population and community ecology as well as state-of
the art hydrological and soil analytical technologies developed at the University of
Aberdeen. Given the topical subject, combination of skills not previously put together, a 14
years long chronosequence of patch occupancy, the project has the potential to lead to
substantive future NERC-funded research. Partners in the project include Prof Doerthe
Tetzlaff (Geography), Prof Xavier Lambin (SBS) x.lambin@abdn.ac.uk, Dr David Johnson
(SBS)
Title: Building retrofit in Scotland: historic traditions in a low energy, low carbon
economy
Supervisors: Mohammed Imbabi (Engineering), Fredrik Glasser (Natural & Computing Science), Jane
Geddes (Divinity, History and Philosophy)
People spend on average 22 hours a day living, working, shopping or relaxing in a building
of one form or another. In the past, buildings consumed very little energy and were
environmentally benign. They relied on passive means to achieve acceptable indoor
environments. By contrast, the 20th century saw the advent of ‘mechanised’ buildings that
rely excessively on active means, for example central heating or air conditioning, to maintain
indoor comfort and (in many cases) compensate for low cost construction and energy
inefficient designs and materials. Given that 70% of buildings in 2050 have already been
built, the challenge is to develop practically useful low energy, low carbon retrofit strategies
and products to improve existing buildings, reduce energy costs and enhance their long term
asset value. The proposal is thus for an interdisciplinary PhD studentship that brings
together aesthetic, quality of life and engineering solutions in a single integrated strategy
using buildings in the North-East as examples. The proposed project lies at the intersection
between two domains within the Environment & Food Security Theme (Environmental
Change and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources) and positively impacts The North and
Energy Themes. Under expert guidance, the student will investigate how traditional, passive
retrofit methods could be adapted and developed to improve utility and function of buildings
while at the same time maintaining historic values and reducing carbon footprints. The
project’s originality lies in its conservative yet evolutionary approach to the renovation of
buildings as living habitats, not museum exhibits from different eras. The established knowhow in engineering (Imbabi and co-workers), materials science (Glasser and co-workers)
and history of building (Geddes and co-workers) will focus on training the student in this
approach. As the project grows it will generate opportunities for collaboration with other
research groups in the UK, across Europe and beyond. It will lay the foundations for
subsequent high value applications to Scottish funds as well as to the recently proposed EU
Horizon 2020 programme.
The working title of the project is ‘Building retrofit in Scotland: historic traditions in a low
energy, low carbon economy’
The project will benefit indirectly from established research and industry links in the areas of
low energy building and novel building materials that are led by Imbabi and Glasser. It also
makes a practical extension to the Leverhulme funded Buildings of Scotland Project being
carried out by researchers in the History of Art led by Geddes. Information derived from this
project would help to inform the building types chosen for investigation in the proposed PhD
studentship. Engagement with other relevent disciplines (e.g., environmental medicine) will
be actively sought as required
Title: to be confirmed
Supervisors: Justin Travis (Biological Sciences)
1. Tipping points in ecosystems services, community structure, population dynamics and
population genetics. Under one or more environmental drivers where do tipping points
occur? How do we identify them or predict them? Do they occur simultaneoulsy at different
levels of organisation or alternatively are certain levels of organisation more resilient than
others? Answering these questions can benefit from close collaboration between ecologists,
environmental scientists and mathematicians, physicists and statisticians. It is a broad area
and I am open-minded with respect to collaborators but could certainly imagine the complex
systems group playing a role as well as individals at JHI or the Marine Lab (these issues cut
across terrestrial and marine environments). I was heavily involved in an FP7 bid that
narrowly missed funding on tipping points (I co-ordinated a WP) - some of this material may
be of interest to others and I would be happy to present at the meeting.
2. Optimisation approaches for landuse under competing interests/needs. How do we best
allocate land to conservation / food / energy requirements? This is a key question and one
that by forming the right collaborations at Aberdeen we might be able to make serious
progress on. We have strong modelling capabilities in conservation and energy (soil c
especially), JHI presumably have expertise in the food production so a joint studentship
integrating the models and looking at dynanic optimisation methods might be extremely
interesting.
Title: Wild Relatives as Novel Sources of Plant Protein
Supervisors: Wendy Russell (Rowett)
Expression of Interest: One major concern of the UK food and drink industry relates to
food security. Climate change, increased fuel costs, and changing demographics will all
impact on this sector and yet, the industry needs to be able to provide affordable, acceptable
and nutritious food. Currently, the major protein source for most people is meat, but there is
a necessity that reduction in meat consumption is required for individuals to be able to make
both healthy and sustainable dietary choices. In this case, the UK needs to be in a position
to exploit these markets by developing alternative and more environmentally sustainable
protein sources. Many native plants have historical usage as high-protein food for livestock
and also for human medicinal use. This proposal will explore the potential of wild relatives as
novel sources of plant protein for human consumption. Although, these products may not be
directly palatable as a food, they have potential to yield novel high protein isolates, rich in
bio-actives that could be used in the production of food products. The key deliverables of this
studentship will be to inform policy makers, agronomists and industry of novel plant-protein
resources with potential to be exploited as foods for the future. This proposal could be of
interest to food technologists, nutritionists, natural product chemists, botanists, agronomists,
economists and scientist working in sociology, social history and public health.
Title: to be confirmed
Supervisors: Alywin Pillai, Anne-Michelle Slater and Malcolm Combe (Law)
The Rural Law Research Group undertakes research in the area of rural law encompassing
aspects of environmental law, agricultural law, land law and energy law. We host a biannual
conference series drawing in legal academics, practitioners, policy makers and other
disciplines and are very keen to have the opportunity to propose funded interdisciplinary
studentship. Our next Rural Law planning workshop (drawing in external and external
participants) will be held on the 14th August on the theme of Managing Scotland’s Natural
Resources and the agenda includes planning for our 2013 conference and, we had hoped,
discussing the possibilities for a proposal or proposals for this studentship. (I have just
completed an interdisciplinary research project funded by Scottish Natural Heritage with
Steve Redpath in Ecology on species reintroductions and this would be one area, for
example, that might usefully be further developed). Other options relating to agricultural
tenancies and land management and land reform also exist.
Title: The role of the suberin lamellea and lignin Casparian strip in plant root
pathogen infections
Supervisors: David Salt (Biological Sciences), Steve Woodward (Biological Sciences), Pieter van west
(Medical Sciences)
Hypothesis: The suberin lamellea and lignin Casparian strips that occur in the endodermal
cell wall of plant roots act as physical barriers to fungal pathogen penetration protecting the
plant from local and systemic infect.
Background and Significance: Roots are the primary organ that acquired the water and
mineral nutrients from the soil essential for plant growth and development. Of vital important
to these functions is the Casparian strip and suberin lamellae cell wall modifications which
form a barrier to diffusion, allowing the root to control nutrient and water uptake. It has been
suggested that the resistant chemical nature of these structures also provides a physical
barrier to pathogen penetration into the root. Despite their importance, the exact role of the
Casparian strip and the suberin lamellae in plant root pathogen infection remain largely
unknown. A better understanding of this function could allow for the development of novel
genetic approaches that manipulate the suberin lamellae and Casparian strips for the
development of more pathogen resistant plants. This would help protect yields with reduced
application of pesticides, enhancing food security and allowing the more sustainable use of
the non-renewable agricultural soil resource.
Approach: This project builds on the recent isolation and characterization of a novel
Casparian strip mutant esb1 in the genetic model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Baxter et al.,
PLoS Genetics, 2009) by Professor Salt’s group. This mutant has defective Casparian strips
and also produces double the amount of suberin lamellae compared to wild-type plants.
Professor Salt has also recently isolated several other A. thaliana mutants with altered
suberin lamellae and Casparian strips. These mutants provide plants with a range of
genetically determined levels of suberin lamellae and Casparian strip barriers. Many species
in the Oomycete genus Phytophthora are plant pathogens (Phytophthora – from the Greek
‘the plant destroyer’) and species in this genus are known to cause enormous losses of
crops worldwide, including potato, soya beans, various crop Brassica and fruits.
Phytophthora species are also known to produce cutinases that can degrade suberin. By
testing the ability of the A. thaliana Phytophthora brassicae pathogen to infect roots of
various A. thaliana genotypes with altered levels of suberin lamellea and Casparian strips we
will be able to systematically dissect the role of these physical barrier structures in protecting
plant roots from Phytophthora pathogen infection.
Title: Disease risk and landscape change
Supervisors: Sandra Telfer (Biological Sciences)
Zoonotic diseases that originate from wildlife pose a significant and growing threat to human
and livestock health, especially in developing countries. Evidence indicates that land-use
change is associated with the emergence and re-emergence of zoonoses. The impact of
land-use change on wildlife movement is critical for epidemiological processes and risk at
the landscape scale. This is particularly true for temporally changing landscapes. In
Madagascar, slash and burn agriculture (tavy) operates on a rotational cycle, with previously
cleared and cultivated areas left fallow for a period of years, before re-burning. This results
in a temporally changing landscape mosaic and areas at different stages of regeneration
(savoka). Black rats occupy most habitats within this landscape (villages, agricultural crops,
savoka, forest). The process of tavy is likely to influence rat movement patterns and
population connectivity, with potential impacts for the landscape epidemiology of rodentborne zoonoses. Moreover, as human population growth has resulted in a significant
shortening of rotational cycles and increased clearance of primary forest, changing practices
could result in changes to disease risk.
This project will examine how the practices of tavy influence rat movements and landscape
epidemiology, working alongside a larger project that is investigating the environmental and
socio-economic drivers of risk for rodent-borne diseases. The larger project is working in a
diverse landscape that includes areas of active tavy, with fragmented and degraded forest,
and areas close to protected forest, where tavy is limited. The project will investigate (i) how
tavy influences the frequency and spatial scale of rat movements using field-based and
molecular approaches and (ii) the landscape epidemiology of rodent-borne zoonoses
through molecular typing. The project will focus on one of the pathogens being studied in the
larger project. Potential candidates that occur at high enough prevalence and have
established genotyping assays include Leptospira spp. and Bartonella spp.
The project will predominantly involve field and laboratory work. In addition, GIS and some
remote sensing work will be required to identify the location and timing of land-use changes
(e.g. frequency of fires, changes to forest cover). Potential collaborators include colleagues
in CoPS (remote sensing) and IMS (molecular typing of pathogens). Molecular tying of
pathogens has significant potential to improve our understanding of transmission processes
within reservoir populations. This project will build on current strengths of the university and
establish new cross-college collaborations.
Title: Rice: balancing sustainable agricultural production methods, cultivar diversity
with nutrient contentand contaminant levels - a Bangladeshi dietary modelling proof
of concept project
Supervisors: Janet Kyle (Health Sciences)
Nutritional and dietary diversity for ensuring ‘ecologically sustainable food systems’ has an
important role when sustainably reducing the incidence of malnutrition. Key factors
associated with malnutrition are inadequate food intake and disease, both common in
Bangladesh where typically rice provides 70% of the daily energy intake. Consequently there
is a need to ensure sustainable agricultural production of high yielding rice cultivars which
are also energy and nutrient dense. Whilst optimising these factors, food safety must also be
assured by minimising exposure to potentially toxic contaminants, such as arsenic (As), a
common health risk in Bangladesh.
The current proof of concept proposal aims to demonstrate that appropriate selection of a
range of rice cultivars and environmentally sustainable production system could assure the
safe supply of energy and nutrient dense rice, thereby mitigating the negative health effects
of malnutrition and contaminant exposure. A subset of rice cultivars will be selected based
on pre-specified factors, including yield, As contaminant levels, energy and mineral density,
from a diverse set 300 rice cultivars, grown in Bangladesh employing different irrigation
systems (and therefore of differing sustainability). This dataset is currently being produced
within the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences in a large BBSRC project. The
subset of rice cultivars will subsequently be processed and prepared for dietary consumption
before further in-depth environment contaminant and marco- and micro- nutrient analysis.
Mathematical modelling will be employed to determine the impact of informed rice cultivar
selection on the nutritional quality and safety of the Bangladeshi diet, by linking the nutrient
and contaminant analysis data, yield and production statistics with local food availability and
consumption data.
The PhD would link strands of work which have not previously been linked and develop new
cross-institute collaborations between Dr Adam Price and Dr Gareth Norton (Institute of
Biological and Environmental Sciences) and Dr Janet Kyle (Institute of Applied Health
Sciences). It is envisaged that completion of this project will expand and develop invaluable
new links internally across institutes, including the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, as
well as externally with existing and new collaborations with the local Bangladeshi and Indian
research teams to facilitate future grant applications.
Title: Linking functional diversity with genomic and population genetic approaches in
an under-explored but abundant microbial group
Supervisors: Cécile Gubry-Rangin, Graeme Nicol, Jim Prosser (Biological Sciences)
Nitrification is a major step of the nitrogen cycle, where ammonia is oxidized into nitrite and
nitrate. Its first step is performed by both ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammoniaoxidizing bacteria (AOB). Whereas AOB are studied since more than a century, the role
played by AOA is only under investigation since 2005. 30% of the world’s soils (and 50% of
all agricultural soils) are considered acidic and AOA are thought to drive nitrification in these
soils and not AOB. However, there is still ignorance regarding their contribution to
nitrification and nitrous oxide production, a potent greenhouse gas. Nitrification has been
demonstrated in several acidic soils (Gubry-Rangin et al., 2009; Stopnišek et al., 2010).
There are three major evolutionary lineages of archaea in acidic soils (Groups 1.1a, 1.1b
and 1.1c) and two if these (1.1a and 1.1b) play a key role in ammonia oxidation (GubryRangin et al., 2011; Lehtovirta-Morley et al., 2011). However, the level of nitrification
measured is not fully explained by the activity of those 2 groups and organisms from the
third archaeal lineage, Group 1.1c, are good candidates for clarifying this paradox as they
are mainly abundant in acidic soils (Lehtovirta et al., 2009). Importantly, they can be one of
the most abundant prokaryotic lineages in acidic soils and can represent >30% of all cells in
some soils such as those associated with boreal forests. The Group 1.1c lineage has no
cultivated representative and its potential involvement in ammonia oxidation and nitrous
oxide production remains unknown. These organisms could be key-players in both the
terrestrial and the atmospheric pollutions, thus impacting on the climate change. Additionally,
specific associations with mycorrhizae have been demonstrated (Bomberg and Timonen,
2007) and under-explored processes may reside in such interaction. Therefore, this project
proposes to explore this microbial group and necessitate the use of cross-cutting
approaches.
The proposed research programme would involve isolating Group 1.1c archaeal cells using
RAMAN spectroscopy followed by single cell whole genome amplification. Genome analysis
will be used to elucidate metabolic pathways, indicate potential functional roles in nitrogen
cycling and other ecologically relevant processes, analyse population genetic including
structuration and demography, and conditions which may enable laboratory cultivation.
Therefore, several axes will be developed, and this could be done in collaboration with
colleagues from UoA:
a- Dr Dave Johnson (mycorrhize interaction) - School of Biological Sciences
b- Prof Xavier Lambin (population genetic) - School of Biological Sciences
c- Dr Nicholas Morley (nitrous oxide production) - School of Biological Sciences
d- Prof Marcel Jaspars (chemical compounds) - School of Natural and Computing
Sciences
e- Dr Oliver Ebenhoeh (metabolic pathways) - Institute of Medical Sciences
This project would have an important impact in understanding environmental pollutions, both
terrestrial and atmospheric. It would also help to better manage the soils and lead to a
sustainable use of natural resources, and it would have an impact on the food production, as
fertilized acidic soils have low nutrient use efficiency and low productivity for plant growth.
Title: Drivers and dynamics of multi-scale models for coupled systems: managing
socioecological systems
Supervisors: David Lusseau (Biological Sciences), David Pym (Natural and Computing Sciences),
Julian Williams (Business School)
We are coming to realise that in order to manage sustainably the (direct or indirect)
exploitation of natural resources, we cannot look at economic and environmental aspects in
isolation. Sustainability is defined by our ability to maintain an economically viable activity
while preserving the ecological integrity of both the natural resources used and the
socioeconomic welfare of the communities involved. Isolated management of these socioeconomic-ecological systems leads to societal conflicts that are difficult to inform in a rational
manner.
Economic models, for tractability in very large systems, have tended to rely on linear Euler
equations to allow for computable solutions of equilibrium conditions. When mapped to
models of natural resources these requirements for the existence equilibrium have tended to
manifest themselves in terms of a cost-benefit analysis that monetises environmental
outcomes in a way that is not always consistent with the intrinsic non-linear properties of
ecosystems.
Indeed, the observed response in policy to changes of state in natural ecosystems tends to
also be non-linear, suggesting that the revealed preferences of economic agents and their
representative policy coordinators is indeed better modelled by a non-linear dynamical
system than a linear system. Furthermore, in monetary economics, financial economics and
industrial economics non-linear models are already being used to explain artefacts in
observed variables not predicted by standard linear models. Environmental economics has a
track record in this area; however the ability to simulate broad interactions between
economic agents and ecosystems has only been made possible with recent advances in the
underlying mathematical and computational frameworks.
This project will bring together modelling traditions from our three colleges to develop a
coherent and cohesive framework that will integrate  via a compositional, systems-ofsystems modelling perspective on the whole ecosystem  macroeconomics, social
dynamics, and animal population dynamics models to understand how the properties of such
coupled systems emerge from interactions at multiple scales. It will address the challenges
in integrating models that have common drivers, but which operate at different scales. The
project will also formalise, or at least characterise, the notion of sustainability for such
heterogeneous and multi-scale systems, and assess its drivers under varied conditions.
Following these conceptual developments, we will focus on two applications of such
modelling approaches to case studies that are crucial for environmental sustainability and
food security: wildlife tourism and fisheries.
Title: Feasibility of community-based agricultural interventions to impact on
household food security, nutrition and the environment in Nepal and/or Ghana
Supervisors: Debbi Marais and Janet Kyle (Public Health Nutrition Unit)
Agricultural interventions are muted as ‘win-win’ opportunities aimed at improving food
security, nutritional status and the local economy of poor regions, such as Nepal and Ghana
where a high percentage of the population live in rural small community settings with
unhealthy living environments. However a recent review of the literature has highlighted that
though there was a positive impact on production of goods there was a lack of evidence of
the benefits to local households and the local environmental consequences of such
interventions. The proposed PhD studentship would be to determine appropriate small scale
community-based agricultural interventions to impact on household food security, nutritional
adequacy and the environment in Nepal and/or Ghana. The project would aim to identify
probable small scale agricultural interventions at community level in Nepal and/or Ghana
and determine the feasibility of introducing these interventions in the country context.
Secondly, the project would aim to investigate the impact of implementing the identified
community agriculture programme(s) on household food security, nutritional status, the
home environment (eg. air quality) and the broader environmental footprint.
We have identified potential collaborators but we are still actively looking for other crosscollege and institutional collaborators.
Title: Virtues from Necessities? The Case of the English Wine Industry
Supervisors: David Inglis (Sociology), Debra Gimlin (Sociology), David Watts (Geography)
Studies of food security tend to focus, naturally enough, on issues of crisis and risk in food
networks, where such networks both partly constitute, and are constituted by, conditions of
complex globalization. A particular focus is on the negative environmental consequences of
contemporary food production systems, as these are intertwined with such phenomena as
ozone layer destruction and global warming. Much less examined, however, are instances
where such phenomena are beneficial – or are thought to be so by the actors involved - for
the operation of existing food networks and the generation of novel ones. This raises the
question: in what ways do those people involved in such networks make sense of, respond
to, and negotiate the apparent benefits of perceived environmental crises?
A very pertinent case in point here concerns the English wine industry. From very small
levels of production in the 1970s, it has today become a multi-million Pound business,
growing every year at an impressive rate. Once regarded as something of a joke, English
wine now wins prizes at major international wine festivals, judges believing such wines to be
increasingly on par with those from established production regions such as Champagne.
Paradoxically, the strong perceived success of English wine is made possible – and is widely
thought by wine industry professionals, journalists and other commentators to have been
made possible - in part by rising temperature levels in southern England, allowing more
propitious growing conditions, akin to those in more southerly climes, than was hitherto the
case. Thus it is a widespread aspect of the English wine industry’s self-understanding that
English wine is a beneficiary of global warming processes, which are otherwise strongly
coded as dangerous, risky, life-threatening, planet-destroying, and so on.
This PhD seeks to investigate the paradox of how, in this instance, environmental crisis is
thought to lead to financial and aesthetic success. How do English wine-makers and the
social system that surrounds them (made up of, variously, drinks companies, wine critics,
journalists, publicists, tourism officials and so on) make sense of this state of affairs? How do
they present the alleged benefits of global warming to the wider world? What forms of
disavowal or distancing do they engage in?
Furthermore, a second set of questions the PhD will engage with concerns issues of value,
both cultural and economic. Given that English wine had zero reputation, or a negative
reputation, even just 20 years ago, what processes have been at work for it now to be
enjoying increasingly powerful critical recognition and mainstream success in terms of rising
levels of consumption? How have English wine producers been able to produce, as regards
the perceived worth of their product, something from nothing? How has an economically
viable – and to that degree, apparently financially secure - food industry been constructed
from apparently highly unpropitious grounds? While the first set of questions relates to
issues in the multi- and inter-disciplinary study of environmental crises, the latter set
engages with current debates in the anthropology, socio-cultural geography and sociology of
economic and cultural valuation processes and modalities.
The PhD will utilise a range of qualitative research methods (field-work, semi-structured
interviews, documentary analysis, content analysis, archival research) in order to investigate
the subtleties and nuances of these matters, attending to the fine-grained and frequently
paradoxical details of this particular food system. We envisage that the material collected
during this PhD will be published in a range of discipline-based and interdisciplinary journals
concerned, broadly, with food and environmental issues.
Supervision will be cross-College in nature, drawing upon expertise in Geography (research
specialism: sustainable food systems) and Sociology (research specialism: the globalization
of food production and consumption). The PhD is explicitly intended as an initial exploratory
study of the English wine industry, which will operate as the basis for a larger and more
comprehensive project – intended to be ESRC-funded – on that industry’s sustainable future
to be carried out by members of the supervisory team.
Title: Implications of high intensity biofuel production for water security and soil
quality
Supervisors: Chris Soulsby (Geosciences)
In both the UK and beyond there is significant momentum behind dramatically increasing the
use of biofuels in energy production. As a result, an increasing amount of land use is being
allocated to rapidly growing trees such as willow or poplar coppice on short rotations.
Although the intention for such biofuels is that they create a neutral energy source in terms
of carbon budgeting, other aspects of their “sustainability” are poorly understood. An obvious
example is that such rapidly growing crops tend to be water demanding, both in terms of
high evaporative losses of interception from dense canopies and high transpiration needs.
Surprisingly, this land use change – which in many parts of the world is set to be larger scale
– has largely unknown implications in terms of “downstream” security of ground and surface
sources. The economic consequences of this are also therefore unknown. Moreover, the
long term impacts on the physical (e.g. structure and drainage) and chemical (carbon
dynamics) properties of soils and their long-term fertility are unclear. Not least because
climate change is likely alter precipitation and temperature regimes in many areas.
This PhD project will seek to bring together for the first time expertise in the Schools of
Geosciences, Biological Sciences and Business to understand the implications of biofuel
production for the physical, chemical and economic aspects soil and water sustainability.
Specifically it will seek to:
-Estimate the water use characteristics of different biofuel crops using both empirical and
modelling studies.
-Assess the implications for the quantity and quality of “downstream” water flows
-Evaluate the economic implications of any loss of water resources in the context of the
economic and environmental benefits of increased biofuel production.
The project will create a new interdisciplinary focus for research Aberdeen that spans the
domains of Sustainable Natural Resource Use and Environmental Change within the EFS
Theme, as well as having an interface with the Energy Theme. It will provide the basis for
research bids to both national and international funding agencies.
Title: Sustainability of land and water management: the carbon balance of reservoirs
Supervisors: Chris Soulsby (Geosciences)
The Scottish Government’s goal of increasing the proportion of renewables in Scotland’s
energy mix has profound and largely unknown implications for the sustainability of land and
water management. For example, both the UK government and major generators have
expressed concern that increased reliance on variable sources of energy production (e.g.
wind) will require development of new tactical sources that can be guaranteed. As a result
numerous sites are being explored in the Scottish Highlands to develop new, or expand
existing, hydropower sources to create new pump-storage schemes. This involves the
creation of coupled reservoirs at differing altitudes, with the high elevation site (the “header
pond”) being used as a strategic store of water to generate energy on demand during peak
periods. This is maintained by night-time pumping from the lower elevation reservoir when
demand is low.
These new reservoirs will be located in parts of the Scottish Highlands dominated by peaty
soils and will involve inundation of areas of existing moorland and/or forestry. The
implications of doing this in terms of increasing Green House Gas (GHS) emissions from
flooded areas is likely to be highly variable and site specific. The impacts will depend on the
stocks of terrestrial carbon in the catchment area, the dynamics of aquatic carbon in upland
streams and the nature of reservoir operations. Moreover, given climate change projections
for the Scottish Highlands, variable alterations in precipitation and temperature regimes
dictate that future carbon budget scenarios will need to be evaluated. This project will seek
to bring together expertise across the Schools of Geoscience, Biological Sciences, James
Hutton Institute and Marine Science (Freshwater Laboratory) in a project that will seek to
integrate empirical and modelling approaches in assessing both terrestrial and aquatic
carbon dynamics of different reservoir operating scenarios for different parts of the
Highlands under climate change projections. The interdisciplinary project will seek to
develop guidance on optimising the location and operations of such schemes by:
Developing carbon budgets for the different type of landscapes (in terms of soils, hydrology,
landuse, geology, topography etc.) being considered for new pumped storage schemes
Evaluate the implications for reservoir inundation and operations for both long-term and
short-term carbon and water fluxes in different landscape types.
Project how these fluxes and implications are likely to alter under different climate change
scenarios.
The PhD will therefore link across the domains of Sustainable Natural Resource
Management and Environmental Change across the ESF Theme, as well as interfacing with
the Energy University Theme.
Title: Food Security, Environmental Change and Sustainable Use of Natural
Resources: The Case of Genetically Modified Crops in Europe
Supervisors: Nicolas Ellison (Anthropology), Luz Maria Lozada (JHI)
This PhD studentship proposal aims to test concept ideas and provide preliminary data for a
comparative project on public and scientific debates about the effects of genetically modified
crops on human health, biological diversity and sustainability of land use systems.
The PhD research is to focus on public and expert debates in two EU countries (UK and
France) and would be aimed at gathering first hand qualitative data from such debates in
both countries. This studentship research would therefore ideally require both a training in
conservation biology or environmental management and sound experience of social science
methods (or vice versa). The primary data of this PhD research is to be contextualised
through review and synthesis work on the existing research in conservation biology and
social sciences on the reception of GM crops within a framework of conservation conflict
studies.
In fine the studentship would help to develop a cross-college proposal for a trans-national
funding bid (ERC, FP7…) for a comparative project between 2 European countries and 2
Latin-American countries (existing potential international partners in France, Germany,
Mexico and Chile).
Wider inter-college collaboration between CPS and CASS essential and possibly through
ACES.
Title: Addressing food security by controlling the risk of food poisoning: an exemplar
case study of listeriosis in the Scottish smoked salmon industry
Supervisors: Norval Strachan (Biological Sciences/Natural and Computing Sciences), David Watts
(Geosciences), Ken Forbes (Medical Sciences)
The Scottish farmed salmon industry is worth >£500 million annually and supports 8500
jobs. Smoked fish is exported to key markets in the EU, America, near and far east. It is
marketed as a premium added-value product capitalising on its Scottish roots.
Consumer confidence in food products can be decimated as was seen in the case of exports
of beef during the BSE outbreak, Salmonella in eggs and the recent continental E.coli O104
outbreak that infected >3500 people and caused 48 deaths, initially attributed to Spanish
cucumbers and latterly to Egyptian fenugreek seeds. One key issue for food security is the
supply of food which is microbiologically safe by controlling the transmission of pathogenic
organisms, such as Listeria, which cause human disease.
The smoked salmon industry has an ongoing problem with Listeria in its products. Previous
research indicates that the Listeria contamination comes from several sources along the
production chain (e.g. fish farm, primary processing plants and smoke houses).
There have been two recent developments that now make it possible to address this
problem. The first is the development of a risk governance paradigm (made operational
through the International Risk Governance Council’s framework) that enables technical and
lay views of risk to be combined as well as economic and legal aspects. This framework is
readily transferable to other disease risks and indeed potentially to any risk. The second is
the recent explosion in the application of Next Generation Sequencing to genotype
organisms has allowed hitherto impractical analysis of the epidemiology and biology at great
depth and at low cost. This is exemplified by the international “100,000 Foodborne Pathogen
Genome Project” at UC Davis, California, and in which Aberdeen will be a key collaborator.
AIMS
1. Frame the problem of the risk caused by Listeria in smoked salmon.
2. Map the route of product through the food chain from local and global perspectives
and assess the concerns of stakeholder groups (industry, regulatory bodies and
consumers).
3. Assess the legislative demand (national and international) and economic costs (to
health and control) of coment of the impact of the above on the constraints to export
imposed by the legislative demands of the recipient countries.
4. Determine the strains found along the food chain: fish farms, processing plants,
smoke houses, in retail smoked salmon and in human cases, to identify the most
important source(s) of contamination and the risk to human disease.
In combination with our extensive collection of Listeria isolates carefully selected from across
the food chain through our ongoing industrial collaborations this offers an unparalleled
opportunity to tackle this multifactorial problem. This generic approach can be readily applied
to other foods and their associated pathogens and is scalar between local and global
markets thus helping to ensure the food security of the world’s population.
Title: Transport disruptions associated with climate change: perceptions of risk and
uncertainty
Supervisors: Jillian Anable (Geography & Environment) and Dr Clare Bond (Geology)
This research will use the lens of weather-related disruption to the UK transport system to
examine the expectations, resilience and acceptance of the adaptations required at the
individual and the system-wide levels. The aim of the project is to contribute to
understanding how individuals engage with current climate-related disruption on the
transport network and the identification of the social limits to adaptability as an effective
response to climate change. It recognises that putting climate adaptation in to practice
requires social and cognitive processes which themselves depend on underlying
perceptions, priorities, knowledge and ultimately values held by the agents of change These
agents include individual members of the public as well as public sector policy and
commercial actors. As such, it will concentrate on the interactions between policy,
stakeholder opinion, climate-related disruption and socio-psychological motivations of key
actors to define world views and attitudes which may limit adaptive capacity. By adopting a
stakeholder perspective and the integration of innovative and multi-disciplinary
measurements of risk perception and acceptance, climate modelling and scenario building
methodologies, it will offer a fresh approach to assessments of the potential for climate
adaptation in the UK transport sector. Most importantly, the development of these adaptation
pathways will reflect an appreciation of future scenarios for managing transportation
networks which account for behavioural responses to different types of impact.
The project is expected to use several interrelated quantitative and qualitative approaches.
First, recent weather-related disruptions to the UK transport system will be quantified and
classified. Adaptation scenarios will be developed for specific case study areas of the UK
and the potential for disruption to the transport system will be assessed. Secondly, the
perceptions of different stakeholders will be measured, potentially using Q-sorting
methodology, and deliberatively tested against the scenarios. Thirdly, these two sets of
results will be synchronised, potentially using geographically weighted regression, linking the
presence of physical risks and limits to their perception and stakeholder responses.
This research will offer an important and fresh contribution to the literature on climate
change adaptation by focusing on the potential for climate related events to encourage
transport behaviour. It will add to emergent literature on the social limits to adaptation and
develop spatially rich scenario analysis in order to understand variation in perceptions and
response and their relationship to physical limits. Practical case study experience will ground
the theoretical contributions relating to values, perceptions of risk and behaviour change so
as to critically evaluate the utility of incorporating such assessments into the modelling and
appraisal of future options for managing transportation networks.
Title: Integrative approaches to the study of resource use and extraction
Supervisors: Karen Salt (Divinity, History, and Philosophy) & Janet Stewart (Language and Literature)
As the twenty-first century advances, critics interested in multi-scalar processes within and
amongst species, and their interactions within various environmental systems and networks,
now find themselves facing a barrage of discipline-specific approaches with which to orient
research questions and hypotheses. Yet, even with the availability of these theoretical tools,
significant challenges remain to examining the environment and the ways that humans and
other species interact with it across time, within various spaces, and amongst wide-ranging
communities.
Although appreciative of these advances, this project aims to go beyond these advances
and puts forward a programme of integration between approaches to the study of the
environment from the social sciences, arts, and science-related fields. While this project has
the potential to extend into multiple themes and subject areas, one research focus will orient
its initial launch: the study of resource use and extraction and the reverberations of the
allocation of this resource within particular communities.
The goal of this integrative PhD project is to bring together students interested in addressing
increasingly complex environmental questions. Within it, students have the chance to
engage with significant grand challenges facing communities, nations, and species and
address those challenges utilising the approaches of the team assembled within this
programme. At present, scholars with interests in this project come from the School of
Language and Literature, the School of Social Science, the School of Education, the School
of Divinity, History, and Philosophy, the School of Law, the School of Geosciences, and the
Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences. It is our contention that through a
combined integrative approach to research and critical investigations, postgraduates will be
best positioned to untangle the challenges of land use, energy needs, sustainability, and
biodiversity that impact humans (and other species) and their interaction with the
environment, and as a consequence, potentially de-stabilize ecological systems across the
planet.