Changes in UK montane bird communities

Montane habitats are amongst the most untouched remaining in the UK, but they are also fragile and subject to several environmental threats, including climate change, atmospheric deposition and overgrazing.

Long-term monitoring of Eurasian Dotterel, Charadrius morinellus, a montane specialist in the UK, has shown marked population declines since the late 1980s (89%), which appears to be associated with impacts of environmental change. While our understanding of Dotterel responses to environmental change is reasonably well documented, it is broadly unclear how the wider montane bird community has responded to these changes.

Further understanding of montane bird community responses is urgently needed to fill key knowledge gaps regarding the ongoing impacts of climate change in those most sensitive of habitats and to advocate for the need for appropriate conservation mitigations to lessen their effects.

This would use data from three national Montane Bird Surveys conducted in 1999, 2011 and 2025 to understand patterns of change in occupancy of the UK's montane bird community. The aim would be to develop either species-specific or community dynamic occupancy models that quantify temporal changes in species presence across a large sample of UK montane sites, and to produce a peer-reviewed paper by project end.

This opportunity would suit a highly numerate candidate.