This week’s PhDetails is with Chris Taylor. Chris did his undergrad at Sheffield in Zoology before going on to do his masters in statistical ecology. Chris’ research interests have transitioned as he predominantly cares about conservation issues and he has now shifted from addressing the symptoms of declining animal populations and habitats to addressing the cause - climate change (largely). Chris has chosen his undergraduate module choices, masters project and now PhD project to move toward developing a deeper understanding of climate change and its effect on terrestrial ecosystems. His current interests revolve around biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon and in particular, the plant and soil carbon sinks and how they respond to environmental change. You can find Chris on Twitter here: @Carbon_Chris95
Well let’s start off talking about completely unscientific stuff: What is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
I’m a big lover of post 1980 music myself but a few gems did of course exist before then. Of them I would have to say the jam were my favourite.
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Probably Nirvana or rage against the machine.
Favourite movie?
Undoubtedly fight club, anybody else is wrong. Saving private Ryan is also acceptable.
Do you listen to podcasts? What are some of your favourites?
No but I really should instead of wearing out the songs on my playlists.
Where do you study and who is/are your supervisors?
I’m based at the University of Sheffield with Professor Gareth Phoenix as my main supervisor. I am co-supervised by Dr Jess Davies at Lancaster University.
What year of your PhD are you in?
Just started my second year.
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
I am part of a NERC funded doctoral training programme called ACCE which stands for ‘Adapting to the Challenges of a Changing Environment’. Or words to that effect. I’m funded for 3.5 years so will probably be scrubbing pots part time for the last 6 months.
Do you have any publications?
Sadly, not yet. A few co-authored publications are in the pipeline though. I’ll be trying to publish my first year’s work so keep an eye out for it in an obscure soil science journal.
Did you do a masters – where was it and was it about?
I did, it was also here at Sheffield. It was a statistical ecology project looking at phenological shifts of bivoltine butterflies. That is how does the relative timing of life history events (specifically emergence of adult butterflies) differ for butterflies with two annual generations (bivoltine compared to single generation, univoltine species). The idea was that spring temperatures are warming faster than summer (don’t ask me how) as a result of climate change. Bivoltine species generally have developmental stages (caterpillars) alive at this time so do these spring generations advance faster than the summer ones? As with most science my conclusion was we still don’t really know but possibly.
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
I do, it is based in High Bradfield in the Peak District, a glorious part of the world. When it’s not windy or raining. The best fieldwork I have ever done would be on a wildlife conservation internship in South Africa during my undergrad. It was great as it was my first proper trip abroad and I was overwhelmed by just how different everything was and how it looked so much like the documentaries I obsessed over as a child. I’d been saving up my money for two years to go so it felt well-earned too!
"Using the mist sprayer at the acidic grassland plots at one of my field sites. We use the ghostbuster-esque backpack to apply nutrient treatments to the plots."
Do you do lab work?
My project is a mix of field, lab and modelling work which is good because I would get bored pretty quick. The majority of my lab work is monotonous work such as washing roots or sieving soil. I much prefer getting my hands dirty in the field or playing with the data but alas, it is the lab that is often between these two. It’s not too bad when you’ve got your music on I suppose.
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I enquired about a few but didn’t apply and ended up applying for 3, though all with the same DTP. If I had read the small print (which when applying for a research-based job, I definitely should have), I would have realised you can only accept an interview for one. Turns out I was only offered the one anyway so it didn’t matter and fortunately it was the one I wanted the most! I did think it was also the one I was least qualified for so it came as a pleasant surprise.
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during field/labwork – did it work?
Not so much bodged but very much hated. We have some soil corers up at the field site, which as you might expect, are used to take soil cores. They work well and all but during the summer we had a severe drought at the site and the soil was incredibly compacted and wouldn’t come out so I had to dig it out with a spatula. Without fail it would suddenly give and I would slice my fingers on the sharp edges, leaving me feeling like I had tried to put on Freddy Krueger’s gloves backwards.
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
Email the supervisor beforehand with a question that shows you are both interested and also know a bit about their work. Get your name in their email list somewhere.
What supervisor traits are important to you?
It’s important to have a supervisor(s) that understands the balance between sink and swim supervision, providing help once you’ve had a good go yourself. It helps you learn but you aren’t spoon-fed.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Micromanagers. Or generally being an arsehole.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
Investigating how phosphorus limitation of grassland ecosystems might restrict their uptake of carbon dioxide in the future.
"A photo from the top of one of our field sites in the Peak District. Photo credit: Ben Keane"
I’m sure my peers will think me odd for saying this but I really enjoyed presenting at the graduate symposium. I mean sure I was shitting myself but to have a large audience (admittedly who are forced to watch) for you to discuss your work reminded me of why I applied in the first place and what interests me about the work we do.
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
I think I naïvely expected things to just go okay from the start of my PhD, despite actually working alongside many of them and knowing full well how rare that is. As a result, I expected the model I use to work using data from my field site immediately when it has actual taken (and still taking) the whole year trying to get it to work. So while it isn’t a single low point, that whole feeling of being behind your optimistic initial plan isn’t great.
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
James Hansen. The freaking legend.
Do you have a favourite paper?
Not really but the most useful one is the one I use almost every day as it details the model development of the model I use. Here’s a link for any particularly enthusiastic readers of this blog: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2015GB005167
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
The annual meeting of the British Society of Soil Science in Lancaster 2018. I felt like my research actually fitted in there and there were loads of awesome talks about saving the world with soil.
What hours do you typically work?
If you count swearing at your broken code as work, then pretty much 9 till 5.
"Checking the CO2 probe is fitted to the centre of the FACE ring properly and simultaneously messing up the readings by exhaling CO2."
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I’m certainly not qualified to give advice on this. I have recently installed a chrome extension called ‘stayfocusd’ which blocks websites that distract you. I would highly recommend, especially the nuclear option. However, I am not to be trusted as I still sometimes just uninstall the extension to stop it doing its job. There’s just no saving some people.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
The rapidly deteriorating environment.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
I love sports, especially boxing and football so I try to fit in as much as possible whenever I can. It’s very satisfying to punch or kick away the frustrations of the day.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
Understandable error messages
What would be your dream job?
I don’t want to sounds cliché, but any job where I am making a positive contribution to the environment would make me happy. However, I’ve always loved the idea of restoring degraded land and converting it into a nature reserve in South Africa.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Literally no idea.
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Dubious.
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
I would like to do some tutoring within schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged children, to help improve their representation at universities.
"Presenting my first year’s work at the annual 2018 meeting of the British ecological society."
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
MATLAB
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
I have a huge amount of respect for scientists who aren’t afraid to voice their opinion and put themselves in the firing line, simply to better the world, often at their own detriment. I would suggest following Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayoe) on twitter to see what I mean as she is an excellent example. I also chose my PhD project by carefully considering who my supervisors would be and to that end I am very happy with my choice. Both Gareth and Jess are academic role models to me simply because they are fantastic at what they do but at no detriment to the time they invest in myself and their other students, who it is clear are high on their list of priorities.
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
A scientific pipe-dream of mine is to work for Project Drawdown.
Do you have a favourite organism?
I do, it is the grey wolf. They’re just gorgeous animals with social structures similar to our own so you can’t help but anthropomorphise them a little. They play vital roles in ecosystems too.
How often do you meet with your supervisors?
It varies, I often skype Jess and her post doc Victoria who is heavily involved in the project. I meet Gareth every 3 weeks or so or whenever needed really.
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience?
The events and conferences hosted by my DTP (ACCE) are great for meeting people working across the country at different universities. There is nothing quite like a pre-conference piss-up for networking.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
There is often nowhere near enough free space for me to process some of my samples so it would be nice if the department could magically expand, a bit like that building from Harry Potter. But other people have samples to process, c’est la vie I suppose.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
Put simply, we don’t really know how terrestrial ecosystems will respond to the rapidly increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Natural and semi-natural ecosystems are incredibly complicated and accurately predicting and modelling their responses to a single environmental change is difficult (it’s a nightmare actually). What interests me and my supervisors in particular is how does nutrient limitation, specifically phosphorus, affect the response(s) of grasslands to elevated CO2. We simply don’t know the answer to that. I suspect it is negative, in that the ecosystem cannot sequester (take in from the atmosphere and store) as much CO2 when limited in phosphorus compared to phosphorus sufficient ones. So it’s probably more bad news about climate change, as our models currently predict terrestrial ecosystems could come to our rescue (well a little bit) and they probably won’t if they lack sufficient nutrients. The alternative and more optimistic hypothesis is that extra carbon resources provided by elevated CO2 will allow these ecosystems to access phosphorus more easily, thus alleviating their limitation. This could lead to a delayed positive growth response of ecosystems.
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