The TCBR PhD studentship in Biodiversity and Conservation

August 2013

The TCBR PhD studentship in Biodiversity and Conservation has been awarded to Alwynne McGeever to work on a project entitled “Quantification of tree population dynamics”. Alwynne is a Plant Sciences graduate and will start the PhD in September 2013, supervised by Fraser Mitchell.

Disease, climate change and human activities have long term impacts on tree populations, but the longevity of trees challenges the investigation of their dynamics. This project aims to develop models of long term tree population dynamics using pollen data covering millennial timescales analysed by adapting epidemiological methods. Pine and elm have been selected for analysis because of their dynamic but contrasting histories in Europe over the last 6,000 years. The aims will be achieved by collating data from the European Pollen Database and analysing the spatial and temporal trends in declines and recovery of these taxa. Climate, edaphic and human impact data will be analysed to consider possible drivers. This will require collaboration with a statistician in Dublin and palaeoecologists in the UK.

There will be a further focus on pine in Ireland. This tree was extirpated from several countries in Europe in recent millennia but recent research suggests that a population may have survived in western Ireland. This will be tested through pollen and stomatal analysis. Identifying a native stand of pine in Ireland will have significant consequences for conservation and forestry policy.