PLEASE NOTE: Application deadline date 08 Jan 2024. Applications are no longer being accepted for this project
Project Overview
This project will compare communities of small ‘cryptobenthic’ fishes (camouflaged fishes, <5cm long) across latitudinal gradients, from temperate to tropical reef ecosystems. You will learn field techniques alongside morphological, molecular and isotope analyses to assess the functions of these tiny fishes in food webs across diverse and economically important ecosystems.
Project Description
Cryptobenthic fishes are tiny, yet diverse and abundant in almost all marine ecosystems. While tiny, recent work has shown that these fishes may play vital roles as abundant prey at the foundations of marine food webs1,2. In this project you will assess the community composition of cryptobenthic fishes across broad latitudinal gradients and use cutting-edge technologies to compare not only the species found, but their functional ecology. By assessing the feeding modes and productivity of these fishes you will be able to explore how the roles of these fishes changes across gradients from temperate rocky reefs to subtropical and tropical ecosystems. The findings will significantly increase our understanding of food webs in socially and economically valuable ecosystems around Europe and beyond.
The project benefits from collaborations with the Natural History Museum allowing the student to visit the museum, access their collections and use some of the facilities available. The project will offer numerous opportunities to learn new scientific techniques including the use of DNA barcoding for species identification, and micro-CT scanning and 3D model analysis to assess the functional morphology of collected specimens3. Productivity of cryptobenthic species will be assessed using stable isotope analysis through the University of Southampton’s Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. Studies of the community composition of cryptobenthic fishes also offers possibilities for fieldwork in the UK and potentially overseas as the project progresses.
The INSPIRE DTP programme provides comprehensive personal and professional development training alongside extensive opportunities for students to expand their multi-disciplinary outlook through interactions with a wide network of academic, research and industrial/policy partners. The student will be registered at the University of Southampton and hosted at the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences. Specific training will include:
- conducting micro-CT scans, reconstructing and segmenting 3D models from micro-CT data.
- collecting and analysing morphological data using multivariate linear and geometric morphometric analyses.
- handling preserved and fresh vertebrate specimens from museums and field collections.
- identification of broad fish taxa and the morphological traits that characterise them.
- conducting stable isotope analysis from extracted otoliths (ear bones) to assess field metabolic rates.
- science communication to the public through presentations, outreach and media releases, and to the scientific community through conference presentations and preparation of scientific manuscripts.
1The Atlantic, 2019. Tiny Fish That Break a Fundamental Rule of Vertebrate Life. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/secret-coral-reefs-tiny-fish-excel-dying/590092/
2Goatley, 2019. TEDx Parramatta, Do Tiny Fishes Keep Coral Reefs Alive? https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_goatley_do_tiny_fish_keep_coral_reefs_alive_jan_2020
3Heiple et al. 2023. Many ways to build an angler: diversity of feeding morphologies in a deep-sea evolutionary radiation. Biology Letters 19, 20230049. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0049
