Climate change is driving ongoing rapid change in marine environments worldwide, leading to shifts in species' distributions as they track their 'climate envelopes' (the range of climatic conditions underpinning long-term persistence). This has consequences for long-term conservation management. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an important component of modern marine conservation practice, but their contribution to conservation may evolve under climate change. Ensuring continued resilience in marine conservation management under these conditions represents a significant challenge for marine managers and will have implications for marine users. The project aims to critically evaluate the resilience of the current Scottish Marine Protected Area (MPA) network in the face of projected climate change to 2045 (by when Scotland seeks to achieve Net Zero CO2 emission status) and beyond, based on climate envelopes of selected features (species/habitats) for which these protected areas were originally designated, and explore planning/policy ramifications.

This project will investigate the meanings and structure of landscape terminology in modern and historical Gaelic, exploring how the landscape is perceived and conceptualised by Gaelic speakers and how this perception has developed over time. The project will employ landscape semantics to examine structural onomastic distinctions based on certain criteria, including size (e.g. mountain vs hill) and landscape feature (e.g. 'arable' vs 'nonvarable'), in order to identify the cognitive linguistic categories that structure and inform landscape vocabulary in Gaelic

Intertidal supra-littoral wetland ecosystems are defined by extremely dynamic and variable environmental conditions driven by tidal, climate, and terrestrial input cycles. They are increasingly exposed to multiple human-induced stressors of global climate change and pollution. In this project, we will use the rockpool copepod Tigriopus brevicornus as a laboratory model to examine the short and long term impacts of such stressors and the ways in which extreme intertidal species might adapt under future climate change scenarios. The student be based at the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) will train in field and analytical techniques to monitor environmental conditions and pollution status in wetland habitats. The student will then learn laboratory methods to culture copepods and assay their behaviour, physiology and reproductive fitness, and be supported to undertake and statistically analyse and multigenerational multistressor experiments. The student will additionally learn and develop laboratory, bioinformatic, and statistical approaches to examine stressor responses at the genetic level, focusing on transgenerational adaptation and comparisons across the study populations. The student will benefit in their training from the wide expertise across the supervision team.

Populations of many species of seabirds have declined significantly over the past 30 years, with climate change identified as a primary cause. One species undergoing large declines is the Atlantic puffin, a species of high conservation concern that has recently been re-classified as 'vulnerable' by BirdLife International. The reduction in availability of prey (sandeels) has been proposed as a principal cause for declines, however, predation by predatory seabirds such as the great black-backed gull and great skua may also play a role, especially as these species are showing marked increases in many locations. Since both seabird predator and prey are legally protected, this may lead to wildlife conflicts, especially if management measures such as culling are proposed. Furthermore, conflicts will be shaped by the effects of other pressures on both species e.g. great black-backed gulls and puffins are potentially at risk from the development of offshore renewable energy installations such as wind farms and from the ingestion of [micro]plastics. It is therefore vital that detailed information is available on the interactions between the species involved in order to ascertain the population dynamic consequences of this predator-prey relationship, and to devise effective management strategies to alleviate this wildlife conflict. The PhD would examine the consequences of the significant increase in the great black-backed gull population on the Isle of May, south-east Scotland, on the Atlantic puffin populations. Atlantic puffins on the Isle of May have declined by more than a third in the last decade, while the great black-backed gulls have more than doubled over the same period. Past work at this colony has demonstrated that the majority of predation is undertaken by a subset of specialist gulls that generally target juvenile puffins [1, 2]. However, the extent to which this predation has population-level effects on puffins, and whether this is predicted to change in the future, has not been tested. Further, it is not clear whether potential effects on puffins are apparent more widely, because of limited knowledge of the population trends of great black-backed gull and the extent of interactions with local puffin populations. Therefore the project would involve focussed research on the Isle of May and analyses at the national scale to address the following key questions: a) What is the degree of foraging specialism among individual gulls? b) What is the age structure of predated puffins? c) What are the population-level consequences of predation by gulls on the puffin population? d) What are the predicted changes in puffin and gull population sizes associated with future changes in predator-prey interactions on the Isle of May and at the UK scale? e) What are the predicted changes in populations of both species caused by multiple drivers including offshore renewable effects and ingestion of marine plastics? Addressing these questions would provide conservation managers with the evidence they need to select the best options for alleviating this wildlife conflict.

Research challenge: Identify and demonstrate a robust and economic route for sustainably manufacturing drop-in replacement transport fuels (to use as diesel and aviation kerosene). Using innovative sources of sustainable biomass ensures continuity of fuel supply past peak oil and meets increasing fuel demands. Current 1st-generation technologies have reached the limits of available biomass feedstocks without compromising food supply/security. Seaweed (macroalgae) is a viable alternative source, but its use requires investigation, development and commercialization to provide a non-seasonal supply chain, to tackle its high water content and provide chemical processes for converting to transport fuels. Timeliness/UK Importance: The EU and UK government have set strict targets on greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation requires incorporation of 10% renewables into the supply chain by 2020. Such targets, coupled with increasing demand for dwindling oil reserves, especially for aviation and goods vehicles, make it vital in the short-/medium-term to develop a sustainable supply of diverse renewable feedstocks (current UK transport fuels use=54000 M litres pa: aviation fuel=24%, diesel=39%; 2% growth pa). Establishing routes to produce environmentally and economically sustainable transport fuels will have a direct (chemicals, fuels sectors) and an indirect (transport, manufactured goods' distribution) impact on ensuring the future of UK manufacturing industries. Project aims: To develop and evaluate an integrated supply and processing strategy for sustained production of ensiled MA-derived fuel-spec. hydrocarbons. Innovative Solution: For the first time conventional grassland ensilage methods will be used to reliably preserve MA biomass for >12 months. This MA silage will then be used as an intermediate energy carrier for production of syngas/bio-crude oil. Both hypotheses are entirely new and work of this type has not been conducted anywhere outside of the studies made by Durham/CPI/Silage Solutions. Significantly, dewatering and demineralisation are inherent features of ensiling, two factors crucial in facilitating post-gasification catalytic upgrading. The work will result in a significant step-change in the production pipeline of natural stock/cultivated MA, enabling systems integration by providing a sustained source of MA biomass of consistent chemical composition as a commodity feedstock for fuel production. Ultimately, this project will assist take-off of a large bio-fuels industry that avoids food/fuel competition for land use, does not require fresh water and makes MA biomass an affordable, preferred addition to land-based energy crops.