PhD Project with Scholarship - Critical zone functioning in semi-arid environments

The West Australian Biogeochemistry Centre, School of Biological Sciences in collaboration with School of Agriculture and Environment and School of Earth Sciences of The University of Western Australia (UWA), are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to work on this project. The project is funded from a large-scale study conducted in Pilbara, Western Australia and financed by the Australian Research Council and the industrial partner Rio Tinto Iron Ore. 

This project will aim to better understand critical zone functioning in semi-arid environments and specifically focus on (1) determination of evaporative losses from unsaturated zones with respect to sediment and soil properties and water table depths and (2) estimation of the infiltration rates and velocities in lithologically different unsaturated zones. 

The project will also contribute to the development of stable isotope and hydrochemical methods and their integration with physical soil moisture monitoring in the unsaturated zone to probe its dynamics, aiming for numerical quantification of hydrological processes in the unsaturated zone. Multiple soil moisture probes and three weighing lysimeters will be available for direct observations and verification of the mathematical models.

Before applying check details and your eligibility at https://researchdegrees.uwa.edu.au/scholarships/92616/phd-project-with-scholarship-critical-zone-functioning-in-semi-arid-environments