Collaborative Research: Community Disassembly and Ecosystem Function: Pollination Services Across Agro-natural Landscapes

人类对地球的统治导致了生态系统功能的迅速变化，并退化了许多对人类生存至关重要的功能，如气候调节、水净化和作物授粉。对生态系统功能的研究传统上是利用人工组装的群落在小空间尺度上进行的。因此，我们缺乏对人类活动如何影响正在发生变化的真实景观中的功能的充分了解。这项拟议的研究将在人类引起的土地利用变化的背景下，调查一项关键的生态功能--授粉。研究人员将检查为生长在自然栖息地碎片中的本地植物物种提供的授粉，以及向农业区农作物提供的授粉。这两个系统将被考虑在土地利用强度的梯度上，即研究地点被农业和城市/郊区发展在不同程度上包围。将研究以下问题：(1)传粉者群落如何随着土地利用强度的增加而变化(在物种数量、群落组成、丰度和生物量方面)？(2)传粉者群落变化对本地植物和农作物授粉的功能后果是什么？(3)什么环境因素对授粉功能影响最大？这项工作将造福整个社会，因为随着人口的增长，维持生态系统服务以防止缺水、能源和食物变得越来越重要。野生物种提供的作物授粉依赖于自然栖息地，可以为保护这些栖息地提供经济激励。调查人员将通过研讨会、手册、媒体以及与自然保护和农业组织的合作项目，将他们的研究结果传递给土地所有者和土地管理者。这项工作的更广泛影响还将包括通过为独立和协作的本科项目提供机会来促进教学、培训和学习，重点是布林莫尔学院的女性。

Human domination of the earth has led to rapid changes in ecosystem functioning, and has degraded many functions that are essential to human survival, such as climate regulation, water purification and crop pollination. Research on ecosystem function has traditionally been done at small spatial scales using artificially-assembled communities. We therefore lack a full understanding of how human activities influence function in real landscapes where the changes are occurring. The proposed study will investigate a critical ecological function, pollination, in the context of human-induced land use change. The researchers will examine pollination provided to native plant species growing in natural habitat fragments, and to crop plants in agricultural areas. Both systems will be considered across a gradient of land use intensity, i.e., with study sites surrounded to varying extents by agriculture and urban/suburban development. The following questions will be investigated: (1) How do pollinator communities change (in terms of number of species, community composition, abundance and biomass) with increasing land use intensity? (2) What are the functional consequences of pollinator community change for native plant and crop pollination? (3) What environmental factors most strongly influence pollination function?The work will benefit society at large, because as human populations grow, it becomes increasingly important to maintain ecosystem services that prevent shortages of water, energy and food. Crop pollination provided by wild species, which depend on natural habitats, can provide economic incentives for conserving these habitats. The investigators will transmit the results of their study to land owners and land managers through workshops, manuals, the media, and collaborative projects with conservation and farming organizations. The broader impacts of this work will also include promoting teaching, training and learning by providing opportunities for independent and collaborative undergraduate projects, focusing on women from Bryn Mawr College.