We are looking for a PhD candidate to commence in 2026 to investigate how food webs function in arid ecosystems. Most thinking about how arid ecosystems work has revolved around “green food” webs involving living plants, herbivores and their predators. However, deserts are by definition dry and most of the time there is little plant growth, so where does the energy that sustains desert ecosystems come from during dry times? Answering this question is fundamentally important for the conservation of arid ecosystems because land-managers need this information to manage their properties in the most effective way to sustain biodiversity during inevitable droughts.

This project will use a combination of remote sensing, field surveys and DNA meta-barcoding to investigate the foodwebs and the energy channels sustaining birds, small mammals, bats and reptiles during wet and dry periods.

We are looking for a student with a passion for field ecology and skills in quantitative methods with a First-Class Honours degree (or equivalent evidence of research ability). Applicants need to obtain a post-graduate research scholarship.

Field research will be conducted at Witchelina Reserve in South Australia and Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station in New South Wales