Impacts of farm-scale ecosystem management on water quality in intensively managed grasslands

拟议的工作将评估农场规模的土壤和水资源管理是否能够切实改善生态系统质量。这项研究将在英格兰西南部管理密集的草原上进行，地点是北威克研究所，该研究所是Rothamstead Research的一部分。这项研究将利用一个独特的农场平台实验，该实验将在项目开始之前开始。农场平台内的三个地点将被管理，以提供沿生产力梯度的不同情景，这将代表不同的农场规模、生态系统管理方法。将收集数据(1)描述每种情景下土壤和植被的状况，(2)监测每种情景下一级沟渠和支流的水质反应，以及(3)评估(通过持续监测)不同的管理技术是否影响了水质，如果是，影响程度有多大。将高度重视在量化但不确定的框架内评估水质变化的必要性，并将采用适当的统计技术(地质统计学、(协方差分析))来做到这一点。因此，该项目将使人们了解农场规模管理对水质的直接影响，提供与《水框架指令》(WFD)2015年目标直接相关的证据。这位博士生将在英国领先的地理系之一和英国领先的草原环境科学研究所接受各种领域和分析技术方面的培训。学生将在充满活力、协作的环境中工作，强调团队合作(跨越Farm平台)以实现个人目标。监督和培训将根据学生的个人需求量身定做，重点是一对一培训，特别是在英国认可的实验室，在那里，可国际转让的分析技能将是学生培训的主要内容。因此，在迫切需要对土地管理和水质之间的联系进行深入了解的时候，该项目代表着一个开展高质量研究计划的强大机会，该计划既与英国政府实现世界粮食计划署的目标相关，又提供具有国际意义的科学成果。

The proposed work will assess whether the farm-scale management of soil and water resources can deliver tangible improvements to ecosystem quality. The study will be based in the intensively-managed grasslands of south west England, at the North Wyke Research Institute, part of Rothamstead Research. The research will take advantage of a unique, Farm Platform experiment, which will begin just prior to the start of the project. Three sites within the Farm Platform will be menaged to provide different scenarios along a gradient of productivity, which will represent different approaches to farm-scale, ecosystem management. Data will be collected (1) to characterise the status of soils and vegetation under each scenario, (2) to monitor the water quality responses of first-order ditches and tributaries from each scenario and (3) to assess (via continued monitoring) whether varying management techniques have influenced water quality and if so, by how much. A strong emphasis will be placed on the need to assess change in water quality within a quantitative, yet uncertain framework and appropriate statistical techniques will be employed (geostatistics, analysis of (co)variance) to do this. The project will therefore deliver an understanding of the immediate effects of farm-scale management upon water quality, providing evidence that will be directly relevant to the 2015 goals of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The PhD student will be trained in a wide variety of field and analytical techniques, within one of the UK's leading Geography Department's and the leading UK institute in grassland environmental science. The student will work in a vibrant, collaborative environment, with a strong emphasis on team-working (across the Farm Platform) to achieve individual goals. Supervison and training will be tailored to the individual needs of the student, with an emphasis on one-to-one training particularly in the UKAS accreditted laboratories, where internationally-transferrable analytical skills will be a major element of the students' training. The project thus represents a strong opportunity to conduct a high quality research program that is both relevant to the UK Government in meeting the objectives of the WFD and delivers internationally-relevant science, at a time when robust understanding of the link between land management and water quality is desperately needed.