2025 Studentships

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Iapetus projects for the 2025/26 cohort will be added here from November 2024. The Studentship Competition has now closed. Please see this page for more details.

How important is mantle carbonation in Earth’s long-term carbon cycle?

Communicating Pleistocene fluvial environments and human occupation from the terraces of principal rivers (PhD by creative portfolio)

Unravelling nutrient feedbacks across the Great Oxidation Event

Investigating multiple causes of saltmarsh compaction – how important is biodegradation?

Flax forever: the possibility of immortality in the meristems of an annual plant

Glacial valleys in a changing climate: understanding links between glacial valley morphology, sediment dynamics, and climate variations

Computational innovation for the energy transition: Bayesian stratigraphic correlation of subsurface data

The impact of horizontal gene transfer on the evolution of eukaryotes

Landscapes of resilience? Archaeobotanical and stable isotope analysis of archival material from the First Millennium CE in the Anglo-Scottish borders

How does ice flow enhancement and rearrangement impact the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?

Uncovering the impacts of volcanic ash deposition on plant and soil communities

Greenhouse gas balance in an agricultural grassland system with enhanced rock weathering of basalt as a carbon dioxide removal strategy

Tracing Micronutrient behaviour accompanying forestation and climate change

Relict Landscapes as Archives of Past Climate and Tectonics

Population-scale impacts of metals on microbial communities

Giant megathrust earthquakes: structural and sedimentary controls on tsunamigenic shallow slip

Brain evolution and comparative anatomy across bumblebee species

Long-term pastoral impact on mountain soils

History of tropical peatland vegetation: controls on the recent development of peatland pole forest in Peruvian Amazonia

Quantifying variations in Southern Ocean primary productivity over the last 2000 years from Sulfur Isotopes in Antarctic Ice cores

Refining dietary interpretation of archaeological humans in the Holocene of northwestern Europe using paired apatite and collagen carbon isotopes

Sensing the air: ammonia, ammonia sensors and improving rural air quality

Impact of climate change on the northern Greenland Ice Sheet over the Late Cenozoic based on a novel geochemical technique and climate modelling

Passive Seismic Imaging of Under-explored Central Iceland

Examining ecological shifts and impacts of adaptive divergence in response to geothermal habitats

Adders in the north: Conserving northern England’s adder (Vipera berus) populations

Migratory patterns and feeding grounds of stranded beaked whales explored through biomarkers and isotopic signatures of blubber

The Lake District Legacy: Tracking and tracing past, present and future delivery of contaminated sediment from historic mining headwater catchments

Can restored landscapes mitigate disease outbreaks? The effects of habitat restoration on zoonotic vector-borne disease risk in Scotland

Do genes that evolve under sexual selection cause speciation in Drosophila pseudoobscura?

Why are we not making soil? Learning lessons from the historic anthropogenic soils of UK and Germany

Determining the Widespread Risk of Atmospheric Aerosols Released During Environmental Hazard Events, using Satellite-based Observations.

Shining the light on long-term patterns of sediment cover in bedrock channels

Understanding the ecological interplay between tree planting and natural processes to create future forests

Origin and evolutionary dynamics of rainforest assembly in the Fiji Islands

Resilient Coastal Communities: Nature-based Solutions to Mitigate Compound Flood Risks

Bridging the divide between distant water fleets and coastal communities in the biggest unregulated fishery in the world

Heavy metal insights into the formation of planet Earth

Holocene Antarctic Peninsula Tephrochronology (HolAP-Tephra): Using Antarctic Peninsula ice core records to assess Holocene volcanic activity climate impacts.

Time travelling with ancient DNA: revealing past adaptations of plants to changes in atmospheric temperature and CO2 levels

Past ocean oxygen and pH changes

Understanding the role of complexity and diversity in riparian woodland resilience to extreme events.

Understanding pathways to extreme heat using large ensembles

Machine learning for GNSS time series analysis: benchmarking and application in geosciences

Use of remote sensing data to improve predictions of ozone and drought impacts on crop yield.

Identification of native vegetation species by linking UAV imagery with terrestrial spectroradiometers

The genetic diversity and adaptive potential of mountain birch in Scotland for high-altitude nature recovery

Blue Carbon accumulation, transformation and storage: Quantifying biogeochemical processes in saltmarsh ecosystems.

Novel statistical models accounting for misidentification in ecological data

The impact of abrupt global warming on soil erosion and the carbon cycle – lessons from the past for the future

Female mate choice, genetic effects, and the diverse reproductive strategies of live-bearing and egg-laying lizards

The impacts of gigaton-scale direct air capture of carbon dioxide on natural resources

Developing nature-based solutions for reducing microbial pollution in lakes and rivers

Investigating how well coastal protection strategies trap and keep sediment for mangrove rehabilitation in the Guiana Shield

Grounds for an Equitable Transition

Achondrite meteorites as snapshots of Earth’s earliest history

Diffusion Clocks: Decoding Magma Ascent Speed Beneath Volcanoes

Future Seas: Intraspecific differences in the ecological and transcriptional stress responses of intertidal ecosystem engineers

Assessing the eco-hydrological and geomorphic effects of floodplain restoration.

Assessing ecosystem service trade-offs in omnivorous generalist beetles using network inference, molecular dietary analysis and nutritional networks

The Ocean’s Evolution: Deciphering Circulation Changes Since the Last Glacial Maximum

Uncovering the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems through the lens of animal behaviour

The origin of animals: Building a precise timeline from the geological record

Wild Atlantic Woods: how to recognise and maintain their cultural and conservation value.

In hot water: Climate change, water level, and the future of water quality in lakes

Telling the time in turbulent oceans: How do phytoplankton use clocks and carbon to survive deep mixing?

How did Earth become a habitable planet? Revealing the origins of Earth’s water using Antarctic meteorites

Can artificial intelligence improve flood risk management?

How to peel a slab: Insights into slab weakening and slab-plume interactions in the Afar region

Disentangling the interactions between climate change and land-use change in a 3D world

Palaeoglacier and palaeoclimate reconstructions in the Chilean and Argentinian Lake District, Patagonia

Microbial ecological archaeology of Antarctic microbes through single cell genomics

Automated Continuous In-situ Dissolved Metal Monitoring & Modelling (ACID M3)

Nature-based solutions for coastal management – The role of biofilms in induced carbonate precipitation and sediment stability

The contribution of mesopelagic fish to the functioning of the Southern Ocean Ecosystem in a changing climate – an isotopic study.

Applying social network and personality trait analyses to understanding and managing human-macaque sympatry in urban Singapore

Do organic-mineral interactions increase or decrease greenhouse gas release from rivers?

Developing drone and satellite remote sensing to support catchment scale monitoring and management of invasive plant species.

Impacts of rapid proglacial lake formation on glacial and proglacial systems in SE Iceland

The tactics of rheotaxis: movements of higher vertebrate predators in relation to Southern Ocean currents

Microbial degradation of glacial POPs

Environmentally sustainable creel fisheries

The evolution of reproductive isolation in rubyspot damselflies

Mineral-microbe transformations in carbon critical environments

Role of turbidity currents in organic carbon and nutrient transport to deep-sea environment

Impact of environment and climate change on shallow-water foodwebs in polar ecosystems

Rock, charcoal and compost: Investigating synergistic effects of enhanced rock weathering, biochar, and compost amendments for soil remediation and carbon sequestration.

How does climate change impact reindeer populations? Reconstructing Arctic environments using lipid biomarkers in lake sediments.

Northern Farming: Sustainable Practice Through Time

Anthropogenic ocean carbon uptake and acidification – establishing the “hockey stick” for ocean CO2

Mandrills and microbes II: the gut microbiome

The importance of location of origin for wildflower seed mixes

Communicating the air: identifying better methods to support public engagement with air pollution to help minimise air pollution exposures

The origin of life at ancient alkaline hydrothermal vents

Getting to the core of the Great Glen Fault

Rewilding: integrating technologies and data to monitor upland food-web change

Reconstructing past volcanism using trace metals in ice cores

Bridging tradition and technology: advanced remote sensing and local knowledge for tropical forest biodiversity and biomass mapping in Amazonia.

Carbon capture and storage: can a transdisciplinary framework for environmental impact assessment deliver a fair and equitable net-zero carbon future?

Understanding the role of coastal habitats to fisheries using bioacoustics and machine learning

Underground heat storage in abandoned coals mines for Net Zero

Landslide-flood interactions in the Himalayan mountain range in a warming climate

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for the Automated Tracking of Icebergs through Drift and Fracture

Peat-forming seasonally flooded forests of the Peruvian Amazon: distribution, carbon storage, and long-term ecology

Late Glacial and Holocene glacier dynamics in southeast Alaska / British Columbia

Invasions and extractions in Lough Neagh and their role in water quality deterioration

Unlocking Earth’s volcanic record with novel computer vision approaches

Machine Learning for Innovative Slope Design to Radically Decarbonise Open Pit Mining

How development shapes the pace-of-life of animals

Weathering vs. climate change: Quantifying recent silicate weathering using novel isotope tracers

Understanding the potential soil carbon benefits of agroforestry

Feathered Witnesses: Unravelling the Impact of Habitat Loss on Neotropical Avifauna with Stable Isotope Analysis

Representing runout in landslide nowcasts to improve disaster information and response

Reactivation and mineralisation associated with the Lake District Boundary Fault

Physics-informed neural networks for urban flood modelling

Nocturnal predators in landscapes of the Anthropocene: how light and sound pollution affect movement ecology and diet of Tawny owls (Strix aluco)

Exploring the impact of pollution on coastal marine environments in NE England

Plinian eruption deposits from Las Cañadas Caldera, Tenerife: constraining eruption frequencies, eruption cycles and the Quaternary evolution of the island

Multiscale interpretations of the internal complexity of evaporite sequences from mine workings, borehole and seismic data

Geomechanics of salt cavern operation for underground hydrogen storage

Time-evolving hazard and risk from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in Bhutan.

Improving spatial estimates of species’ extinction risk for conservation planning

Exploring CRM Mineralisation Processes in Layered Intrusions with AI: A Corescale to Microscale Journey and Back Again

Drivers and impacts of extreme high temperature events over coastal Antarctica

Modelling Natural Hydrogen systems using Agent Based modelling

Horse power: hoofed animals as agents of rewilding

Laboratory modelling of internal tsunami generation due to ice calving

Assessing the environmental risk of contaminant accumulation and release from retreating glaciers

Investigating records of terrestrial precursors in the early Solar System using Cr, Ni and Zn isotope compositions of meteorites

Humpback whales sentinels of ocean health: population dynamics and drivers for occurrence in breeding locations off East Africa

Explorations of symbiosis along a parasite-mutualist continuum

The impacts of electromagnetic fields from offshore cabling on lobster (Homarus gammarus) and crab (Cancer pagurus) behaviour

Active deformation and landscape evolution in the western Ordos, northern China

Reservoirs of Bacterial Pathogens in Captive Animal Enclosures: Evolutionary Drivers in a Changing Climate

When blue spaces turn brown: understanding the influence of poor water quality on blue health (dis)benefits

Sustainable Flood Management: Feasibility and Effectiveness of Catchment Scale Nature-based Solutions for Flooding and Biodiversity Restoration

Defining interactions between diet and season on gastrointestinal tract health and microbiome of domestic animals

Explaining and predicting the migratory behaviour and population dynamics of a long-distance migratory bird.

Quantifying fluvial geomorphic change in response to changing glacier dynamics

Modelling landscape-level approaches for mitigating the evolution of pesticide resistance

Elucidating the function of lasso peptides in bacterial interspecies interactions

Monitoring Scotland’s fresh waters from space: re-engineering the state-of-art using artificial intelligence

Novel insights into tick-borne disease ecology through host blood meal identification

Investigating past changes in Greenland melting and its impacts on ocean circulation as a key to the future.

The rocks of the future: lithification of anthropogenic geomaterials in the Anthropocene

Impact of perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) on soil structure and microorganisms

Mapping Arctic Marine Mammals: understanding the distribution of species in a rapidly changing north

Habitat restoration planning: Investigating the synergism between biochemical and acoustic cues for successful settlement of native European oysters

Aiding emergency services by detecting floods in urban areas using radar satellite data and machine learning

Assessing the Hydro ecological Impacts of Climate-Driven Extreme Events on UK Rivers