Higher Degree by Research Application Portal

We offer up to three PhD projects with scholarships in the project ‘Community completeness in monitoring of post-mining restoration success’. The project is a collaboration between researchers from The University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, University of Tartu, Estonia and University of Camerino, Italy, as well as two mining industry partners – Iluka Resources Ltd and Alcoa in Australia Ltd.

This collaborative research between ecologists, statisticians, computer scientists and restoration practitioners will investigate why particular plant species and plant functions are absent from post-mining vegetation, using the ecological concepts of species pools, dark diversity, and community completeness. The projects will be tightly linked, and the successful PhD candidates (and their supervisors) will be working as a team. We will use data from vegetation characterised by contrasting community assembly processes, including species-rich kwongan shrublands and Jarrah forests of Western Australia, myall woodlands and Nullarbor scrub vegetation of South Australian semi-deserts, and species-poor salt-marsh vegetation of South Africa.

Honours or Masters of Science degree or equivalent qualifying for admission to a PhD programme in Australia. Suitable areas of study include Ecological Sciences or Computer Science/Mathematics/Engineering (with strong programming and mathematical skills)

1) High-level communication skills in speaking, communicating, and writing in English
2) Willingness and ability to work in a scientific team, including sharing ideas and data
3) Relevant prior studies, skills and interests including one or more of the following:
a. Community ecology (theory and methodology)
b. Functional ecology focusing on plant functional traits
c. Ecology and evolution
d. Theory and applications in vegetation rehabilitation and restoration
e. Programming and mathematics skills
4) Understanding, and preferably experience with use, of basic exploratory statistics (incl. multivariate analysis)
5) Experience of programming in R, and use of R software tools
6) Ability to commence the PhD project by enrolment at UWA by July 2025
7) Bonus: Previous successful publications relevant to the topic

Please submit:

A)       CV in English

B)       Academic transcripts

C)       List of publications (published or submitted); PDFs of all publications to be provided

D)       One or two academic references (e.g. Masters supervisor)

Prof Erik Veneklaas (functional ecology; ecological restoration):

erik.veneklaas@uwa.edu.au; https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/erik-veneklaas

A/Prof Michael Renton (ecological and evolutionary modelling; applied mathematics and statistics): 

michael.renton@uwa.edu.au; https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/michael-renton