Supervisor: Dr Josie South
Department: School of Biology, University of Leeds
Description:
Floating invasive plants, such as floating pennywort, are perceived to negatively affect recreational fisheries but this has not been quantified. The student will design a survey, collect data and run a preliminary analysis over 6 weeks to assess fisher perceptions of floating invasive plants and determine whether presence and/or quantity of floating invasive plants affects the fishers catch. This will provide evidence of whether the social perceptions of invasive plants matches with the catch per unit effort data. The survey will be carried out with the assistance of the Angling Trust network and be completed at reservoirs and angling clubs in the Yorkshire area that do and do not have invasive floating plants. The student should ideally have access to a vehicle and a clean driving license but this is not a necessity.