We are seeking a postgraduate student with a background in both the social and natural sciences to work on this exciting new ESRC/NERC studentship. This project aims to investigate the combined impacts of potential climate change and settlement on the stability of grassland ecosystems in southern Africa, and thus on livelihood security. The specific importance of this research lies in the following factors: 1) Grassland environments underpin the livelihoods of 793 million people globally, 40 % of whom are located in Sub-Saharan Africa; 2) The ecology of grasslands ecosystems, and the services they provide, therefore
play a major role in livelihood sustainability; 3) Understanding the complex interactions between grassland ecosystems and local livelihoods is critical to achieving appropriate and realistic mechanisms to address poverty alleviation; 4) Furthermore, climate change predictions suggest that increased uncertainty of precipitation parameters will significantly impact upon the security and sustainability of natural resource based livelihoods. This research will focus on two study areas within the southern African grassland range across Namibia, South Africa and Botswana. This research is interdisciplinary, adopting
approaches and techniques from both the social and natural sciences. The studentship will be supervised jointly by staff within the Departments of Geography and Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield.
If you are interested please contact Dr Chasca Twyman (Geography) [email protected], Prof John Wainwright (Geography) [email protected]
or Dr Colin Osborne (APS) [email protected] AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and no later
than 1st JULY 2010 with an expression of interest and CV. Please note this studentship is UK fee status only and applicants must have a Masters degree.

John Wainwright
Department of Geography Tel: +44 (0)114 222 7951
The University of Sheffield
Winter Street Fax: +44 (0)114 279 7912
Sheffield
S10 2TN
UK

[email protected]
http://www.shef.ac.uk/geography/staff/wainwright_john/
Advances in Environmental Monitoring and Modelling:
http://www.ambiotek.com/advances
Geography Compass:
http://www.blackwell-compass.com/home_geography_compass
Ecohydrology:
www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/eco