Project Background
Building on an extensive time series for sandy beaches in South West England, this project will involve extensive field sampling, laboratory assays and analysis of large datasets to understand what controls variation in key fish populations. Project outputs will provide valuable evidence to support the conservation of inshore habitats of key importance to fisheries and biodiversity in the face of natural and anthropogenic environmental change.
Sandy beaches critically support production of key fisheries species (e.g. European plaice, turbot) and harbours the venomous lesser weever fish, which impact on beach visitors and lifeguard operations. A number of abiotic and biotic factors operating in early life drive variation in fish populations, including both climate patterns that determine the supply of larvae from offshore spawning, and influences of biotic and abiotic conditions on juvenile performance in inshore environments. These recruitment processes are poorly understood for inshore species. In particular, the extent to which epifaunal prey availability controls abundance, growth and survival of juveniles remains uncertain.
This PhD is an opportunity to complete a decade-long timeseries of sampling at a range of beach types in South West England, and to build on biochemical tools developed at the University of Plymouth for measuring fish growth and venom potency towards answering fundamental questions about drivers of recruitment variability in key species of human interest.
