Understanding recent land-use change in Snowdonia to plan a sustainable future for uplands: integrating palaeoecology and conservation practice

About the project

The UK’s sustainable future rests on a holistic appraisal of rural landscape function/land use and the state of critical ecosystem services. In upland Britain, important concerns include moving towards net-zero carbon targets for land-use, increasing the forest estate, and maintaining or enhancing biodiversity while supporting upland farming. Planning is better informed by knowledge of recent change in the upland system related to the large-scale social and economic transformations of the 20 th Century.

This project focuses on Snowdonia, a mountainous region of North Wales that includes the extensive Snowdonia National Park. Here, a range of human impacts (for example, deforestation, moor burning, afforestation, fluctuating levels of grazing pressure, and pasture improvement - including the addition of nitrogen) have affected the landscape-scale mosaic of vegetation cover and inputs and outputs of carbon, nutrients and pollutants to upland waters and downstream locations.

The link between land use/farming/forestry practices of the past 150 years and carbon storage potential in peat/quality of inland waters can be demonstrated using modern palaeoecological techniques applied to peat and lake sedimentary records. The work would contribute to the development of upland land-management strategies in partnership with Natural Resources Wales (Bangor).

For full project details visit the Inspire project page .

Supervisors

• Professor Paul Hughes (University of Southampton)
• Professor Mary Edwards (University of Southampton)

Potential supervisors

• Potential supervisors: Lead supervisor PH Professor Paul Hughes BSc. Ph.D. Professor of Palaeoecology Supervisors ME Emeritus Professor Mary Edwards

Lead supervisor

• Lead supervisor: PH Professor Paul Hughes BSc. Ph.D. Professor of Palaeoecology

Professor Paul Hughes BSc. Ph.D.

• Professor Paul Hughes BSc. Ph.D.: Professor of Palaeoecology

Supervisors

• Supervisors: ME Emeritus Professor Mary Edwards

Entry requirements

A 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent , in one of these subjects:

• any Earth or environmental science discipline
• biology
• ecology

Fees and funding

INSPIRE studentships are funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, part of UK Research and Innovation, UKRI). The stipend is in line with UKRI standard levels, including the recent cost of living increase.

All studentships are fully funded for 3.5 years.

How to apply

To make an application, visit the how to apply section of the INSPIRE website .

Contact us

For questions about the project, contact:

For questions about the application process, contact the graduate school office.

Email: gsnocs@soton.ac.uk

• Professor Paul Hughes Email: Paul.Hughes@soton.ac.uk
• Professor Mary Edwards Email: M.E.Edwards@soton.ac.uk

Research areas