PhD Scholarship: The ecological implications of optimal climate overshoot

We are currently looking for a PhD candidate to join our environmental modelling research team at Griffith University.

With global temperatures continuing to rise, the exploration of “overshoot” pathways that temporarily exceed a target global warming limit before drawing temperatures back down is a growing priority for scientists and policymakers. The ecological impacts of global warming are diverse, and even temporary climate overshoot could result in irreversible changes.  Yet to date, these potentially irreversible impacts have been almost entirely unexplored with research focussed on identifying overshoot pathways that are economically optimal and technologically feasible. The proposed research will address this gap, by delivering new knowledge of the implications of climate overshoot for ecological systems.

This project will suit a candidate with experience and interest in applying mathematical and/or statistical approaches to model environmental systems, who has demonstrated experience with programming (preferably in R or Python).

The broad scope of this project means the specific ecological systems to be explored, and quantitative methods to be used, can be customised depending on the skills and interests of the candidate.  As part of your Expression of Interest (see details below) include a brief (less than 200 words) research proposal outlining one or two specific research questions on the theme of exploring the ecological implications of temporary climate overshoot, and the quantitative method/s you would use. A recent commentary outlining critical knowledge gaps in this area can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.11.014 .

The PhD candidate will join a supportive and multidisciplinary team, working along-side world-leading researchers in environmental modelling, global change ecology and decision science, including Dr Ryan Heneghan and Dr Melanie Roberts (Griffith University) and Professor Michael Bode (Queensland University of Technology).