The following PhD project is available at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia.

 Please direct EOI’s to mary.young@deakin.edu.au

 PhD Scholarship in Marine Habitat

Mapping & MPA Assessment

 Project Description: This PhD scholarship is aligned with a project funded by Parks Victoria with a focus

on the assessment of MPAs in the state waters off Victoria, Australia. Parks Victoria has established

extensive marine research and monitoring programs for the MPAs that address important management

challenges, focussing both on improving baseline knowledge of the MPAs as well as applied management

questions not being addressed by others. This project includes five main components: (1) develop a full

bathymetry map for Bunurong Marine National Park (MNP) and habitat maps for both Bunurong and

Wilsons Promontory MNPs, (2) establish IMOS Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) monitoring sites

inside and outside Wilson Promontory MNP as part of the national AUV monitoring program, (3) test, refine

and implement proposed new methods for subtidal reef surveys using an AUV and other recent advances in

technology, (4) test, refine and implement new methods for intertidal reef surveys using low‐cost

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), and (5) investigate habitat/species (fish populations and rock lobster)

relationships in Wilsons Prom MNP, including use of fisheries independent survey methods to assess rock

lobster populations inside and outside the park. The PhD student will contribute to a broader team

approach and not be expected to target all aspects of the program and would have freedom to work on

other local and global scale projects. For example, the student would have opportunities to work on

projects involving tracking data to determine habitat utilisation of marine mammals in Bass Strait with

regard to commonwealth MPAs and broader scale studies including global‐scale MPA assessments.

 Project Environment: The project will be hosted by Deakin University’s Centre for Integrative Ecology

(CIE, http://cie‐deakin.com/) in the School of Life and Environmental Science and supported by Parks

Victoria. The project will be principally supervised by Daniel Ierodiaconou from Deakin University as part of

Deakin’s Marine Mapping group (http://www.marinemapping.org/) with support from research partners.

 Expressions of Interest: We are seeking EOIs for a fully‐funded PhD Scholarship from candidates with

outstanding track records in spatial mapping and analysis. Applicants with experience in marine habitat

mapping, acoustic and/or visual mapping methods, underwater video data collection (ROV, AUV, BRUV),

spatial statistics, MPA assessment, and GIS are encouraged to apply. EOIs must consist of a 1‐2 page cover

letter describing your suitability for the position and track record relative to opportunity, as well as a 2 page

CV and any relevant questions relating to the position.

 EOIS can be emailed to mary.young@deakin.edu.au and should be submitted by Friday, 1st July 2016.