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Current Studentships
Environmental Science Studentship (BBSRC CASE studentship in collaboration with Syngenta )
Catchment management for diffuse contamination by pesticide
Catchment management is central to the delivery of water quality objectives to meet the Water Framework Directive. This project will focus on understanding diffuse routes of contaminants into surface waters with a particular emphasis on agricultural pesticides. It will aim at the design of highly targeted protection measures to reduce aquatic pollution. Studies in Switzerland and elsewhere have shown that a small proportion of land (`hot-spots') in a catchment may contribute the majority of diffuse contaminants. Approaches to identifying such hot spots from generally-available datasets are starting to be developed and the requirement now is to apply the approaches in a range of catchments and use them to design mitigation approaches. This project will be undertaken within one of the Catchment Sensitive Farming locations (www.defra.gov.uk/farm/environment/water/csf/index.htm) overseen by Environment Agency catchment managers. GIS analysis will be used to identify hot-spots remotely. The outcome will then be evaluated using a combination of pre-existing monitoring data collected within the catchment and field data to be generated during the project. The final objective will be to develop management plans that optimise the targeting of protection measures.
Supervision
Primary supervision will be provided by Professor Colin Brown (cdb501@york.ac.uk), Environment Department, University of York (www.ecochemistry.co.uk; www.york.ac.uk/depts/eeem).
The industrial supervisor is Dr Paul Sweeney, Syngenta, Jeallot's Hill Research Station, Bracknell, Berkshire (www.syngenta.com).
Stipend
In addition to the standard BBSRC stipend (£12,940 p.a. in 2008/09), the studentship attracts a top-up allocation of £2,500 p.a. from the industrial sponsor.
About you
You should have a first or upper second class honours degree in an environmental or geographical discipline. An appreciation of the natural environment, agriculture and basic knowledge of GIS would all be advantageous.
To apply
Information on how to apply is available at www.york.ac.uk/graduatestudy/. Closing date for applications is Monday 9th February. This position is only available to UK residents (full award) or to European Economic Area residents (fees only award). Applicants are kindly requested to check the BBSRC eligibility criteria (www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/studentships/studentship_eligibility.pdf).