Griffin SHANUNGU

PhD project supported by the International Crane Foundation.

I am an ecologist interested in understanding how the populations of wetland dependent herbivores and waterbirds are influenced by environmental parameters.

Thus, the focus of my PhD study is to understand key ecological parameters that are important for the conservation of wetland dependent herbivores and waterbirds in two important wetland ecosystem in Zambia. Building on my previous work on hydrology – plant – herbivore interactions on the Kafue Flats, a dam impacted wetland, I will further investigated and compare these interactions in a pristine and undisturbed wetland, the Barotse Floodplain. This will further demonstrate how alterations of the hydrology in wetlands impacts wetland biodiversity. I believe that this PhD will help bring out much needed information and data that could be useful in evidence based conservation of the wetlands and the species that rely on them.