PhD studentship available at Royal Holloway University of London in the research group of Dr. Elli Leadbeater
Title: Cognition in a changing world- how do parasites and pesticides alter apian "intelligence?"
Supervisor: Dr. Elli Leadbeater (http://ellileadbeater.weebly.com, http://pure.rhul.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/elli-leadbeater(a2edc845-5d79-4c83-bab4-6c58102f485f).html)
Second supervisor: Prof. Mark Brown (https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/mark-j-f-brown(77a0e94b-96b7-4118-a740-163e7867e3b1).html)
Duration: 3 years
Funding: Fully
funded: includes tax-free stipend at UK research council rate
(currently £16 057, rates for 2016/17 yet to be announced). Due to
funding restrictions, this position is only open to UK citizens and/or EU nationals
Summary: Pollinators
are currently undergoing rapid and potentially devastating global
decline. Threats to bees are of particular concern for food security,
because these insects pollinate more than a third of crops worldwide,
and there is now robust evidence to link both agricultural pesticides
and introduced parasites to colony declines. Recent work suggests that
such effects are in part mediated through reduced cognitive performance
that limits individual foraging success, resulting in poor performance
at the colony level. However, as yet the focus has been almost entirely
on a single cognitive trait: learnt floral cue associations. Cognition
encompasses a multitude of diverse traits, including working memory,
spatial cognition, abstraction, reference memory, nonlinear learning and
social cognition. Each trait plays a different role in producing
efficient foragers- for example, whilst working memory is important in
remembering flowers that have just been visited, reference memory most
likely guides foragers home, and social cognition allows them to respond
to behaviour of other bees. We know almost nothing about how pesticide
exposure impacts upon each trait, nor how such effects might combine to
hinder efficient foraging. This study will be the first in-depth
treatment of the effects of parasites and pesticides on the multitude of
cognitive traits that make up apian “intelligence.” Correspondingly,
the results will be highly relevant to those interested in animal
cognition, pollinator conservation, policy makers and food security
stakeholders.
Research environment: Royal
Holloway's leafy campus is situated in Egham, within easy reach of
central London (40 mins by train from Waterloo). The department has
particular research strengths in social insect biology, and the
applicant will benefit from interaction with students and postdocs in
both Elli Leadbeater's (primary supervisor) and Mark Brown's (second
supervisor) research groups. This project will capitalise upon
world-class facilities for insect research, which include a cognition
lab, an indoor and an outdoor apiary and multiple bee rearing rooms.
Eligibility: Applicants
must have an upper second or (preferably) first-class degree in
biology, zoology, psychology or a related discipline. Evidence of
research skills including statistical analysis, presentation skills and
scientific writing skills is essential, as is a clear interest in animal
cognition and/or conservation biology. Due to funding restrictions, applicants must be a UK citizen and/or an EU national.
Informal enquiries: Please direct these to Dr. Elli Leadbeater (Elli.Leadbeater@rhul.ac.uk)
To apply: Please follow the application instructions on this webpage: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/biologicalsciences/prospectivestudents/studentships/home.aspx.
Deadline: 31st January 2016
Dr. Elli Leadbeater
School of Biological Sciences
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham
TW20 0EX
+44 (0)1784 443547
+44 (0)7901 918423