NEWS

Funding is available for one PhD and three MSc projects, which fit into a bigger research programme on the effects of bush encroachment on the herbaceous layer: mechanisms, feedbacks and thresholds. The project team comprises Susi Vetter and Brad Ripley (Botany Department, Rhodes University) and Sally Archibald (School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences, Wits). Background and project information: Bush encroachment is global phenomenon that has important impacts on grassy ecosystems, causing potentially rapid shifts to functionally distinct forest or thicket. Key to the regime shift between grassland and forest appears to be the loss of [...]

Third Resilience Academy - Enhancing resilience to minimize loss and damage - providing knowledge for the UNFCCC https://ehs.unu.edu/article/read/third-resilience-academy-call-for-applications In the most vulnerable regions of our planet, the impact of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and cyclones threaten lives and livelihoods. The most affected regions include large deltas, small islands and exposed coastal regions as well as arid and semiarid lands, and areas affected by glacier and permafrost melt. People on the frontlines of climate change face severe risks from extreme weather and slow onset processes, including coastal inundation, [...]

International Summer School: "How to model human decision making in social-ecological agent-based models" For PhD Students and early Postdocs modelling social-ecological systems in the context of natural resource use From 5 July to 10 July 2015 in Kohren-Sahlis (near Leipzig, Germany) More info: https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=33352

Research Fellowship: Ecosystem Resilience and Bio-Physical Process Bangor University - School of Ocean Sciences Salary: £31,324 to £37,394 (Grade 7) p.a. Hours: Full Time Contract Type: Contract / Temporary Placed on: 29th December 2014 Closes: 4th February 2015 Job Ref: BU00781 Bangor University, Cardiff University and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) invite applications for a 44-month, full-time Research Fellowship to investigate how coastal and estuarine landscapes are shaped by interactions of biological resilience with environmental change. Salt marshes are important for flood protection, but undergo sudden shifts [...]

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University's (NMMU) Sustainability Research Unit (www.nmmu.ac.za/sru) is recruiting Master’s and Doctoral students who are passionate about collaborative action research, complexity and adaptive co-management of social-ecological systems. Our over-all objective with this action research programme is to work with stakeholders towards adaptive environmental stewardship, using the Garden Route as a ‘laboratory’ for transformation. We offer: Some leeway to pursue your own interests, within the conceptual frameworks of social-ecological resilience, adaptive co-management, social learning, environmental stewardship and participatory action research in the Garden Route; Linkages to networks of [...]