Student Projects

Projects with Sean D. Connell

• Climate Change
  This project will predict future marine environments as a consequence of rising CO2 and its affects on ocean life. The work is mainly laboratory based and depending on the outcomes, would involve field based work.
• Invasion Biology
  Three scholarships are available for immediate start on the ecology of marine pests. Funds provide $3000.00 for research and $2000.00 for living expenses for each project. Research would assess habitat creation as 'beach heads' for invasion.
  
• Habitat-change by addition (pollution) and subtraction (fishing & MPAs)
  This project works with government to identify how and where to protect South Australia's coastal biodiversity. An interest in field-work and science that is relevant to management and society would be useful.
• Forcasting future harvesting & aquaculture locations  This project will train you in an area needed by future state government initiatives (witness $9.8 Million to be spent on South Australian marine biology to underpin state capacity in marine biology & aquaculture).  Which locations are are to become more sustainable under increasing temperature, salinity, UVB and ocean acidification.

Contact details:
Sean Connell
sean.connell@adelaide.edu.au

Projects with Bronwyn M. Gillanders

Isotope marking of larval fish as a method of distinguishing hatchery-reared from naturally-produced fish

The University of Adelaide has available a Divisional PhD Scholarship [stipend $19,616 pa (tax free) over three years]. Interstate applicants are eligible for a relocation allowance. The student must be based at the University of Adelaide, but prepared to spend time at NSW Department of Primary Industries in Narrandera.

Project summary: Over three million native fish are produced in private and government hatcheries and stocked into waterways of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) each year. The ability to distinguish between naturally and hatchery-produced fish is critically important for evaluating the success of stocking and recovery programs in the MDB and in determining the efficacy of stocking as a fisheries management tool. The PhD project will investigate the use of enriched isotopes as an innovative approach for marking fish. There is scope for intellectual development of the project by the student. The PhD is part of a larger project on methods for discriminating hatchery fish and outcomes of stocking in the MDB funded by the Murray Darling Basin Commission.

Selection criteria:
- Australian/NZ citizen or Australian permanent resident & an honours degree (minimum H2A)

Contact details for further information:
A/Prof Bronwyn Gillanders,
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences,
University of Adelaide,
SA 5005;

phone 08 8303 6235 or 0417036235;

email bronwyn.gillanders@adelaide.edu.au