Do large animals play a special role in providing ecosystem services for the planet? This is a pertinent question because the world has already lost most of its large animals and it is currently in the process of rapidly losing the rest. The student will be part of a research group that is conducting pioneering research to understand the specific role of large animals on nutrient and forest dynamics. The details of any DPhil project would be defined in discussion with the student, but it is likely to entail a significant amount of ecological fieldwork in Africa in an extensive plot network or it could involve computational modelling using theoretical models predicting nutrient dispersal by large animals.
This supervisor is not currently accepting D. Phil students.
Personal Research Keywords
Modelling; transfer of nutrients, extinction, predations, ecosystem service