The intern(s) will work with our climate change and ecology research experts to apply river temperature projections to inform our understanding of how water quality and river ecosystems may be affected by increasing river water temperatures under climate change.
The intern(s), in discussion with Environment Agency staff, will decide the focus and depth of this work in the following areas:
a) How have river temperatures across England been changing in response to climate change, how do they compare with air temperature and how are they expected to change in the future?
b) How might these changes affect water quality and river ecosystems, and what are the implications for managing these risks?
The work will analyse our river water temperature projections to understand the magnitude and geography of potential changes, and will apply a mixture of modelling approaches to understand the risks they pose to, for example, the development of algal blooms, changes in dissolved oxygen, and/or fish spawning potential and mortality.
The outputs will be a summary of the main changes in river water temperature, an initial understanding of the risks these may present. These will inform our approach to using the projections in different areas of the business.
