PhD Elevate Scholarship - CQUniversity and Burnett Mary Regional Group (Research)

The importance of the carbon stored in coastal ecosystems has received growing recognition. Large stores of 'blue carbon' can remain trapped for long periods within the shallow and intertidal sediments held in place by coastal vegetation. As a result, the loss of these ecosystems can produce a large flux of carbon to the atmosphere, so their restoration is vital to address climate change. There is, however, much to learn about how, when and why coastal ecosystems sequester carbon. The successful candidate will research the blue carbon potential of restoring seagrass meadows in the Wide Bay area of southeast Queensland, Australia. Using a combination and field, laboratory and numerical research, the candidate will determine priority locations for seagrass restoration, the methods that should be used to achieve this, and the ways to measure the resulting blue carbon uptake. The PhD will join a rapidly growing group of scientists and graduate students working at the CQUniversity Coastal Marine Ecosystem Research Centre (CMERC), in Gladstone, Australia. Gladstone is a small but modern coastal city bordering the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The successful candidate will also work closely with natural resource managers from the Burnett Mary Regional Group, who are co-funding the scholarship.