Global change is accelerating the loss of species on a scale that may rival the largest mass extinction events of the last 540 million years, with largely unknown consequences. Study of the fossil record can help to provide more accurate models of these consequences, which can then be used to predict and remediate future biodiversity loss. The student will be part of an interdisciplinary research group conducting cutting-edge work in conservation palaeobiology, macroecology, and macroevolution, which aims to reveal the mechanisms controlling evolutionary processes during catastrophic events that affected biodiversity in the past. The details of any DPhil project will be defined in discussion with the student, but could involve computational modelling, environmental reconstruction, genetics, field work around the globe, and use of climate models to simulate past environments.

Follow this link to current DPhil topics in Earth Sciences

Macroecology, Palaeontology, Climate change, Fossil record, Biogeography