Upscaling biodiversity - ecosystem functioning research using intertidal forests as a model system (BEF-SCALE)

人类活动已经使全球物种灭绝率提高了一千倍，并使另外一百万个物种濒临灭绝。生物多样性也在更局部的范围内迅速变化，因为气候变化推动了物种的重新分布，许多地区的过度捕捞和栖息地破碎化等压力加剧。了解生物多样性如何影响生态系统功能，如碳捕获和渔业生产力，是实现联合国可持续发展目标的关键挑战，也是英国利用生物多样性实现可持续经济增长和利用基于自然的解决方案帮助实现2050年“净零”排放的政策要求。数百项实验已经测试了生物多样性的变化如何影响生态系统的功能和服务，许多研究表明，只要保留了表现最好的单一物种，生物多样性的丧失就不会降低功能。然而，这些研究都集中在地方尺度上的物种之间的相互作用，在小的栖息地单位，如草地地块，野外围栏，或水族箱;因此，我们缺乏研究，认为BEF的关系在更大的景观，区域-甚至国家-规模最相关的公众，生态系统管理者和政策制定者。生态学理论认为，生物多样性是更重要的生态系统服务的规模增加，由于更大的环境变化，但它目前不能在真实的生态系统进行评估，因为我们缺乏跨尺度和环境梯度的BEF研究。在这个项目中，我们的目标是通过使用英国的潮间带森林作为一个模型系统，弥合实验和相关的较大尺度之间的差距。这些高生产力和有价值的生态系统广泛分布在英国多样化和复杂的海岸线周围，由一套可管理的海藻物种组成，可以在多个不同的环境梯度中轻松操作。为了达到我们的总体目标，我们将在实验中纳入多种环境因素，通过三个相互关联的工作包提供的观测和模型，这些工作包共同为BEF提供了一种通用的方法和比例关系。我们的第一个工作包使用了南威尔士海岸线的100公里长-其中包括波浪暴露和浊度的梯度-作为一个可用的模板，以实验测试从小斑块到整个海岸线的生态系统功能的潮间带森林生物多样性的因果关系。我们的第二个包结合了GB周围潮间带森林的标准化观测网络，卫星遥感和统计建模，以测试BEF关系如何在自然聚集的社区中从1米到1000公里的规模扩大。第三个也是最后一个工作包使用新的实验和观测数据来为动态模型提供信息，使我们能够测试物种特征（如扩散和环境耐受性）如何与环境变异性相互作用，以确定跨尺度的BEF关系。这里的一个关键创新是明确的-和经验知情-在多个环境因素的空间环境变异性的整合。这些将被概括为代表环境如何在一系列不同的生态系统中变化，从森林到农业景观，再到珊瑚礁。我们项目目标的推进将对生态系统中多样性的作用提供一个新的认识，并展示一种可推广的方法来提升生物多样性-生态系统功能关系。我们预计，这将有助于预测生物多样性变化将如何影响生态系统功能和服务的大，相关的尺度，在潮间带森林和超越，从自然资本模型的应用范围，大规模的生态系统恢复项目的设计。

Human activities have already raised global species extinction rates a thousand-fold and have pushed an additional million species towards extinction. Biodiversity is also rapidly changing on more local scales as climate change drives the redistribution of species, and pressures such as overharvesting and habitat fragmentation intensify in many areas. Understanding how biodiversity influences ecosystem functions, such as carbon capture and fisheries productivity, is a crucial challenge directly relevant to meeting the UN sustainable development goals, and UK policy imperatives of harnessing biodiversity to achieve sustainable economic growth and using nature-based solutions to help meet 'net-zero' emissions by 2050.Since the mid- 1990s, several hundred experiments have tested how changes in biodiversity influence ecosystem functions and services, with many studies indicating that biodiversity loss does not reduce functioning as long as the single best-performing species is retained. However, these studies have focused on local-scale interactions between species in small habitat units such as grassland plots, field enclosures, or aquarium tanks; we therefore lack studies that consider BEF relationships on the larger landscape-, regional- or even national- scales most relevant to the public, ecosystem managers, and policy makers. Ecological theory suggests that biodiversity is more important for ecosystem services as scale increases due to greater environmental variation, but it cannot currently be evaluated in real ecosystems because we lack BEF studies across scales and environmental gradients. In this project we aim to bridge the gap between experiments and relevant larger scales by using Great Britain's intertidal forests as a model system. These highly productive and valuable ecosystems occur extensively around the GB's varied and complex coastlines and are formed by a manageable suite of seaweed species which can be easily manipulated across multiple distinct environmental gradients. To meet our overall aim, we will incorporate multiple environmental factors into experiments, observations and models delivered across three inter-linked work packages which together provide a generalised approach and scaling relationships for BEF. Our first work package uses a 100km stretch of the south Wales coastline - which incorporates gradients in wave exposure and turbidity - as an accessible template to experimentally test the causal effect of intertidal forest biodiversity on ecosystem functioning from small patches to the whole coastline. Our second package combines a network of standardised observations in intertidal forests around GB, with satellite remote sensing and statistical modelling, to test how BEF relationships scale-up -- from 1 m to 1000km scales -- in naturally assembled communities. The third and final work package uses the new experimental and observational data to inform dynamic models, allowing us to test how species traits such as dispersal and environmental tolerances interacts with environmental variability to determine BEF relationships across scales. A key innovation here is the explicit - and empirically informed - integration of spatial environmental variability in multiple environmental factors. These will be generalised to represent how the environment varies in a range of different ecosystems from forests, to agricultural landscapes, and to coral reefs. The advancement of our project aim will deliver a revised appreciation of the role of diversity in ecosystems and demonstrate a generalizable approach for upscaling biodiversity - ecosystem functioning relationships. We anticipate that this will feed into predictions for how biodiversity changes will influence ecosystem functioning and services on large, relevant- scales, in intertidal forests and beyond, with a range of applications from natural capital models, to the design of large-scale ecosystem restoration projects.