A complex-systems approach to improve understanding of the biodiversity-landscape structure relationship

提高对生物多样性-景观结构关系的理解的复杂系统方法

• 批准号: NE/T009373/1
• 负责人: Laura Graham
• 金额: $ 44.32万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FT009373%2F1
• 关键词: complex; systems; approach; improve; understanding

We are currently experiencing a global biodiversity crisis. Adorning front pages of international newspapers is the news that 25% of species are listed as threatened. In addition to global environmental change issues such as climate change, invasive species introductions and wildlife crime, the way we manage landscape is also having a negative effect. While it almost seems like common sense that reducing the amount of natural habitat will negatively impact wildlife, what is less clear is how the spatial arrangement of any remaining natural land cover factors in. The breaking apart of areas of natural land independent of the change in the amount is known as fragmentation. However, our understanding of the effects of fragmentation is widely debated and lacks a consistent evidence base. If we look at individual patches of natural land, we are likely to conclude that smaller patches contain fewer individuals and species, and that those species may be those that are less sensitive to what is happening outside of the patch. However, if we look at a whole landscape, made up of multiple small patches, the picture is more complicated. Each small patch may inhabit few species, but the fact they are isolated from each other could mean that there are differences in those species among the patches - perhaps because there is less competition between species. We also need to consider what is between those patches. Forest that has been cleared for low intensity agriculture may open up some different habitat types and therefore have a positive effect on biodiversity. On the other hand, forest cleared for roads and urban developments will likely pose a greater threat as it will limit the movement of individuals through behaviour change and increased mortality. Human intervention can both impede and assist dispersal depending on how habitat is fragmented and what it is fragmented by. In the proposed research, I will bring together research at various scales - from looking at characteristics of individual patches, to how this relationship manifests at the landscape scale and broader. I will consider this from a functional perspective - how do the impacts differ depending on whether we look at large carnivores or small grain-eating birds? I will also consider how the impacts change depending on what the natural habitat has been fragmented by. This is a multiscale problem, that requires a complex systems approach. A complex systems approach is one which allows us to consider how the constituent parts of a system work together to create a result which we may not have seen by only looking at each part individually.

我们目前正在经历一场全球生物多样性危机。25%的物种被列为濒危物种，这一消息登上了国际报纸的头版。除了全球环境变化问题，如气候变化，入侵物种的引入和野生动物犯罪，我们管理景观的方式也有负面影响。虽然减少自然栖息地的数量将对野生动物产生负面影响似乎是常识，但不太清楚的是任何剩余自然土地覆盖的空间布置如何影响。不受数量变化影响的自然土地的分割称为破碎化。然而，我们对不成体系的影响的理解存在着广泛的争论，缺乏一致的证据基础。如果我们观察自然土地的单个斑块，我们可能会得出结论，较小的斑块包含较少的个体和物种，并且这些物种可能对斑块外发生的事情不太敏感。然而，如果我们看一个由多个小块组成的整体景观，情况就更加复杂了。每个小斑块可能栖息着少数物种，但它们彼此隔离的事实可能意味着斑块之间的物种存在差异-也许是因为物种之间的竞争较少。我们还需要考虑这些补丁之间的关系。为低密度农业而砍伐的森林可能会开辟一些不同的生境类型，因此对生物多样性产生积极影响。另一方面，为道路和城市发展而砍伐的森林可能会造成更大的威胁，因为这将通过改变行为和增加死亡率来限制个人的流动。人类的干预既可以阻止也可以帮助扩散，这取决于栖息地是如何破碎的，以及破碎的原因是什么。在拟议的研究中，我将汇集各种尺度的研究-从观察单个斑块的特征，到这种关系如何在景观尺度和更广泛的范围内表现出来。我将从功能的角度来考虑这一点--我们是观察大型食肉动物还是小型食谷鸟类，其影响有何不同？我还将考虑影响如何变化，这取决于自然栖息地被分割的原因。这是一个多尺度问题，需要复杂的系统方法。一个复杂系统的方法是一个允许我们考虑如何组成部分的系统一起工作，创造一个结果，我们可能没有看到，只看每个部分单独。

项目成果

Teasing apart fine- and coarse-scale effects of environmental heterogeneity on tree species richness in Europe

• DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2022.12.002
• 发表时间: 2022-12
• 期刊: Basic and Applied Ecology
• 影响因子: 3.8
• 作者: Laura J. Graham;K. Watts;F. Eigenbrod

Identifying Agricultural Frontiers for Modeling Global Cropland Expansion.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2020.09.006
• 发表时间: 2020-10-23
• 期刊: One earth (Cambridge, Mass.)
• 作者: Eigenbrod F;Beckmann M;Dunnett S;Graham L;Holland RA;Meyfroidt P;Seppelt R;Song XP;Spake R;Václavík T;Verburg PH
• 通讯作者: Verburg PH

Landscape controls on fuel moisture variability in fire-prone heathland and peatland landscapes

• DOI: 10.1186/s42408-024-00248-0
• 发表时间: 2024-01-30
• 期刊: FIRE ECOLOGY
• 影响因子: 5.1
• 作者: Little，Kerryn;Graham，Laura J.;Kettridge，Nicholas
• 通讯作者: Kettridge，Nicholas

Accounting for among-sampler variability improves confidence in fuel moisture content field measurements

考虑采样器之间的变异性可提高燃料水分含量现场测量的可信度

• DOI: 10.1071/wf23078
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: International Journal of Wildland Fire
• 影响因子: 3.1
• 作者: Little K

Realising the promise of large data and complex models

• DOI: 10.1111/2041-210x.14050
• 发表时间: 2023-01
• 期刊: Methods in Ecology and Evolution
• 影响因子: 6.6
• 作者: R. McCrea;Ruth King;Laura Graham;L. Börger