{"id":1061,"date":"2025-11-14T11:35:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T11:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/tedfeldpausch\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2025-11-14T14:52:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T14:52:06","slug":"phd-scholarship-tropical-forest-microclimate-fire-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/ted-feldpausch\/2025\/11\/14\/phd-scholarship-tropical-forest-microclimate-fire-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"PhD Scholarship: Integrating sensing, modelling and data analytics to understand forest microclimate dynamics under fire, degradation and climate change in Amazonia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A fully-funded PhD scholarship is available at the University of Exeter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrating sensing, modelling and data analytics to understand forest microclimate dynamics under fire, degradation and climate change in Amazonia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervision<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lead Supervisor: Professor Ted Feldpausch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-Supervisors: Ilya Maclean; I.M.D.Maclean@exeter.ac.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This project combines environmental sensing, computational modelling anddata analytics to understand how climate change, wildfire and land-use are reshaping tropicalforest microclimates. Tropical forests are reservoirs of biodiversity and play a key role in theglobal carbon cycle. Increasing wildfires, forest degradation, land-use change, and climatewarming are changing forest composition and structure. These changes alter internalmicroclimate, making forests warmer and drier, which increases tree mortality risk and createsfeedback loops that increase future fire risk, frequency, and severity. Despite these major shifts,our understanding to model, measure and predict how microclimates are changing inAmazonian forests remains uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This PhD will address this gap by investigating:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1) How wildfire and land-use change affect above- and below-ground microclimate, includingvariation in vertical profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) How sensor design and measurement uncertainty influence microclimate estimates andmodel performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Development, testing and upscaling of computational microclimate models, integrating in-situ, remote sensing and environmental datasets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) How altered microclimate affect tree mortality, carbon cycling, and fire risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project will build on research and the large existing environmental sensor network and datasets developed by the UKRI-funded Amazon PyroCarbon Project, publicly available land-use change and environmental data, and remote sensing data from airborne and spaceborne lidar (e.g., GEDI) and passive spectral data.The doctoral researcher will take a leading role in shaping the project, analysing the human and environmental drivers of forest microclimate and how these vary across vertical profiles of canopy structure. They will design and test sensor systems (including custom-built devices) and integrate these data with computational modelling and upscaling approaches to improve prediction of microclimate dynamics under disturbance and climate change. Remote sensing data, such as airborne and spaceborne lidar (e.g., GEDI), and passive optical sensor data will be used to assess links between microclimate and forest structure change. Aboveground data will be linked to soil temperature and moisture, supporting collaborative work by the team to assess variation in carbon cycle components. Sensor uncertainty will be evaluated, and custom-built temperature sensors may be deployed. Variation in microclimate will be assessed across biogeographical, environmental, and land-use gradients and with ENSO-related climate anomalies. These data will be used to refine existing microclimate models, upscale results, and assess current and future climate conditions placing trees at higher mortality risk from heat and water stress, and forests at increased risk from warmer, drier microclimates.The successful candidate joins a diverse international research group exploring ecological impacts of environmental change on tropical forests. Fieldwork is possible (pending approval of research permits) for data collection; optionally, the project could be desk-based using existing datasets and ongoing work by project partners collecting data across Amazonia. Training will include tropical field methods, environmental sensors, experimental design and geospatial analysis in R, alongside advanced modelling of microclimate. This UK-Brazil partnership ensures cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research to improve understanding of climate changeand wildfire impacts on the world\u2019s largest tropical forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information and to apply<\/h2>\n\n\n\n