Small carnivore ecology and the impact of heavy metals in the environment

The student will be at the intersection between ecotoxicology, wildlife, conservation and agriculture and will develop skills relevant to those topics and transferrable to other disciplines. Habitat fragmentation and degradation by human activities, particularly agricultural development, threatens global biodiversity. An example of such is the floodplain of the Lower Kinabatangan river in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) where tropical rainforests have been replaced with oil palm plantations. The Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS) consists of several forest fragments on either side of the river which are connected to each other forming a corridor for wildlife movement along the river. Of particular interest is the presence of top predators in the plantations surrounding the LKWS and who forage on the small mammal populations associated with the oil palms. Previously we have identified an increase of multiple heavy metals on the hair of Malay civets and the fat tissue of monitor lizards inhabiting oil palm plantations, however, we don't know yet whether these observations extend to other small carnivores and what is their impact on the species' population dynamics. This project will focus on studying small carnivores inhabiting the LKWS and who are exposed to metal bioaccumulation due to their position in the food chain and the access to prey that carries such metals. To address this aim, the student will on one hand identify the presence of heavy metals in the agricultural setting around LKWS, and using samples collected form small carnivores trapped in the plantations, assess the presence of such heavy metals on the animals (e.g. in their hair). On the other hand, the student will study the small carnivores with genetic markers (e.g. ddRad-seq) to characterise their genetic diversity and population structure, and then jointly assess if particular individuals or populations are more susceptible to contamination than others. The information derived from this work will contribute to the development and update of species management plans in Sabah, and will highlight the role of metal bioaccumulation on small carnivores. The supervisors have a complementary and unique combination of skills that will maximise the support provided to the student during the various parts of the project. The supervisory team is made of Dr. Pablo Orozco-terWengel (main supervisor, Cardiff University), a population geneticist and conservation geneticist with ample experience in tropical molecular ecology, Dr. Claus Svendsen (co-supervisor, CEH) who is an expert on pesticides and bioavailability, Prof. Benoit Goossens (co-supervisor, Cardiff University) a conservationist with ample experience in the tropics and director of Cardiff's Danau Girang Field Centre in Sabah where the work will take place, and Prof. Jason Weeks (co-supervisor, Joint Nature Conservation Committee) who has a wealth of experience on monitoring the impact of pollution and chemicals on wildlife.