Download MSC-PHD Kelps and Climate change posted 21 Oct 2014

Dear SANCOR members,
As part of our Kelps and Climate Change programme, we invite applications from
suitably qualified individuals to participate in field research undertaken by a dynamic
team of researchers interested in the ecology and ecophysiology of South African
kelps. Bursaries are available to support MSc or PhD level studies commencing in
2015.
Kelp ecosystems dominate ca. 25% of the world’s rocky shores. These ecosystems
are responding to human-induced climate change and variability all over the world; in
most regions kelp forests are retreating due to ocean warming and human pressure,
while in South Africa, uniquely, early evidence suggests that kelp ecosystems might
be expanding, possibly due to cooling from increased upwelling.
Three species of kelps have their distribution limit in the southwestern Cape, with
closely related overlapping populations with different ecological requirements. In
addition, there is an overlap in the region between two different ecological states of
kelp forests, with and without sea urchins and other major grazers.
Some of the questions addressed by the project include:
• What environmental and ecological factors best explain the distribution and
population dynamics of the kelp species Ecklonia maxima and Laminaria pallida and
the composition of the associated communities of benthic seaweeds and animals?
• What ecophysiological characteristics of the kelps' life history stages interact with
ecological and climatically-driven environmental variables to influence their
distribution across the transition?
• How might their distribution be projected to change in the future from global climate
change scenarios?
• Do other species show evidence of change in distribution in line with the kelps'
distributional shift?
The project will contribute to a number of parallel projects which we are members of,
including an Australia-South Africa study on genetics and climate change in Ecklonia
radiata, the global Kelp Ecosystem and Ecology Network (KEEN) experiments, a
South Africa-wide collaboration measuring inshore seawater temperature regimes,
and a project on molecular systematics of kelps.
Our group comprises Prof. John Bolton and Dr Laura Blamey (University of Cape
Town), Assoc. Prof. A. J. Smit (University of the Western Cape), Assoc. Prof. Rob
Anderson and Mark Rothman (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries),
Assoc. Prof. Thomas Wernberg (University of Western Australia) and a small group
of enthusiastic post-graduate students.
It is important that the candidates hold a Class 4 Scientific Diving qualification, or be
prepared to undergo diver training. Please contact Prof. Bolton or Dr Blamey
(ecology; [email protected], [email protected]) or Prof. Smit
(ecophysiology; [email protected]) for further information.