Excess fine sediment from soil erosion is considered one of the most pervasive pollutants affecting freshwaters, causing both physical and biological impacts on rivers. Increased deposition of fine sediment has a pronounced impact on the survival of the eggs of species that spawn on or in the bed substrate, such as commercially important salmonid fish species. However, adult fish may be able reduce the risk of sediment impacts on their offspring through their choice of spawning site. Working in a highly instrumented catchment with one of the most intensely studied Atlantic salmon populations, this project will use a combination of advanced survey techniques, artificial intelligence and modelling to explore the consequences of excess fine sediment for salmon populations.
The student will be embedded within The River Communities Group, an applied and impactful research group delivering high profile research and management solutions to government and wider society, in collaboration with The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, a leading charity dedicated to conservation science to enhance the countryside for public benefit.
Find out more about the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences on our website.
We are looking for candidates to have or expecting to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree and a Master’s degree in an area relevant to the project such as Biology, Ecology, Environmental Science, Data Science
Knowledge of field ecology, fisheries, mathematical modelling, data science or artificial intelligence would be highly advantageous but are not required.
You must meet the IELTS requirements for your course and upload evidence before CSC’s application deadline, ideally by 1st March 2025. You are therefore strongly advised to sit an approved English Language test as soon as possible, where your IELTS test must still be valid when you enrol for the programme.
Please find further details on our English Language requirements page.
Formal applications must be submitted through our online form by 29th January 2025 for consideration. Please identify yourself as a ‘CSC Scholar’ in the funding section of the application.
Applicants are required to submit the following documents:
Find out more about our application process on our SBBS website.
Informal enquiries about the project can be sent to Prof John Iwan Jones AT j.i.jones@qmul.ac.uk Admissions-related queries can be sent to sbbs-pgadmissions@qmul.ac.uk
Shortlisted applicants will be invited for a formal interview by the supervisor. If you are successful in your QMUL application, then you will be issued an QMUL Offer Letter, conditional on securing a CSC scholarship along with academic conditions still required to meet our entry requirements.
Once applicants have obtained their QMUL Offer Letter, they should then apply to CSC for the scholarship with the support of the supervisor.
For further information, please go to the QMUL China Scholarship Council webpage.
Apply Online
Kemp PS, Sear DA, Collins AL, Naden P & Jones JI (2011) The impacts of fine sediment on riverine fish. Hydrological Processes 25: 1800-1821
Collins AL, Williams LJ, Zhang YS, Marius M, Dungait AJ, Smallman DJ, Dixon ER, Stringfellow A, Sear DA, Jones JI & Naden PS (2013) Catchment source contributions to the sediment-bound organic matter degrading salmonid spawning gravels in a lowland river, southern England. Science of the Total Environment 456–457: 181–195.
Sear DA, Pattison I, Smallman DJ, Collins AL, Jones JI & Naden PS (2017) The magnitude and significance of sediment oxygen demand in gravel spawning beds for the incubation of salmonid embryos. River Research and Applications 33: 1642-1854.
McKenzie M, Brooks A, Callisto M, Collins AL, Durkota JM, Death RG, Jones JI, Linares MS, Matthaei CD, Monk WA, Murphy JF, Wagenhoff A, Wilkes M, Wood PJ, Mathers KL (2024) Freshwater invertebrate responses to fine sediment stress: A multi-continent perspective. Global Change Biology 30: e17084
Zhu Y, Jones JI, Collins AL, Zhang Y, Olde L, Rovelli L, Murphy JF, Heppell CM, Trimmer M (2022) Separating natural from human enhanced methane emissions in headwater streams. Nature Communications 13: 3810