We have funding from the Australian Research Council to support 2-3 exceptional PhD students who will work on a collaborative project investigating amphibian disease in northern Australia. The disease chytridiomycosis caused declines, local extirpations, and probably global extinctions of many species of rainforest frogs in the Wet Tropics of northern Queensland during initial outbreaks in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s.
Our research group was the first to notice and document these declines, and we have been studying them intensively for over 20 years. We have discovered that the interactions between the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, Bd) and frogs are very complex. Frogs’ behaviour affects their exposure to transmission of the infection, and whether infected frogs simply carry the infection asymptomatically or develop severe disease and die is affected by their choice of microenvironment. The effects of infections are also influenced by antimicrobial secretions produced by frogs’ skins; our work on these shows they may have evolved to increase the resistance of some populations to the disease. We are now also working on how the fate of infected frogs can be modified by other microbes inhabiting their skins; we have shown that many bacteria that live on frogs produce metabolites that fight Bd infections, and it may be possible to probiotically manipulate them to reduce the susceptibility of frogs in nature.
Although many populations of frogs seem to be secure, because we do not as yet understand how combinations of environmental factors affect the vulnerability of populations to decline, it is entirely possible that a new wave of population crashes could occur as weather and climate conditions shift in the near future. We are seeking students to participate in the current phase of our work, which is focused on gaining a thorough understanding of exactly what determines the tipping point beyond which a mild, common infection becomes an epidemic outbreak of a fatal disease.
Our group has collaborative links with other researchers worldwide; these have been highly productive of ideas and publications (see for example Prof. Alford’s research portfolio and publication links, below), and mean that our students have a range of opportunities available upon completion. Recent Ph.D. graduates in this field supervised by Prof. Alford are presently academic or research staff or postdocs at New Mexico State University, the Australian Museum, Plymouth University (UK), and the University of Colorado, and have previously had postdoctoral positions funded by the Australian Research Council, Vanderbilt University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Zurich, among other institutions.
Projects (field-based, laboratory-based, or both) will focus on any of these topics:
1. Determining how chytridiomycosis affects populations by measuring fitness and mortality rates of infected and uninfected frogs in populations coexisting with endemic Bd infections.
2. Determining the relationship between frog microenvironment selection and behaviour and fine-scale infection dynamics, to determine rates of transmission and loss of infections, persistence of the pathogen in environmental reservoirs, and what causes the population of pathogens on an individual host to increase to the point of causing morbidity or mortality, persist at lower levels, or disappear.
3. Determining whether frogs that have reappeared at sites from which they were extirpated have recolonised or recovered in situ, and what changes in the host-pathogen system have allowed them to do this.
4. Developing and performing preliminary tests of techniques that may favour coexistence of frogs with the pathogen, and develop recommendations for conservation actions.
Students should be available to start in February 2014 and will be based at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. We will only accept students who obtain PhD scholarships, which cover living expenses (ca. AU$24,600K/year) and tuition. Scholarships are highly but not impossibly competitive, and are awarded to students with these minimum qualifications:
1. A first class Honours degree, or a Master’s degree with a research component. In exceptional cases they have been awarded to international students with Bachelor’s degrees, research experience, and high-quality first-authored publications.
2. Very good to excellent grade point average
3. Research experience, in the field or laboratory
4. Strong recommendation letters
5. A first-authored peer-reviewed publication (this is particularly important for international students; applicants with publications are much more likely to obtain scholarships, but if you excel in other areas this is not a strict requirement)
The scholarship deadline for international applicants is 31 August 2013, and for domestic (Australian) applicants is 31 October 2013.
Please send a CV, one page cover letter detailing your experience and interests, contact details for 3 references, and unofficial transcripts to david.pike22 AT gmail.com with “PhD position” in the subject line. We will narrow down the pool of interested students and work with 2-3 individuals on their scholarship applications. TO BE CONSIDERED, APPLICATION MATERIALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 5 JULY 2013.
For general questions or enquiries, please contact ross.alford AT jcu.edu.au