Native biodiversity in human-impacted habitats: Applying NGS technology to arthropod assemblages in semi-natural and plantation oak woodlands.

受人类影响的栖息地的本地生物多样性：将 NGS 技术应用于半自然和人工橡树林中的节肢动物组合。

• 批准号: 1806214
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Aberdeen
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1806214
• 关键词: Native; biodiversity; human; impacted; habitats

The conservation and enhancement of biodiversity in woodlands are recognized internationally as integral processes for sustainable woodland management, and action to sustain woodland biodiversity in Britain is mandated within the Natural Environment and Rural Communities and Nature Conservation acts. However, development and evaluation of woodland management strategies aimed at sustaining and enhancing biodiversity are restricted by a lack of reliable, efficient biodiversity assessment methods. Thus, effectiveness of biodiversity protection measures, including those built into forest certification schemes, is frequently poorly understood and not third-party verifiable. Metabarcoding promises to provide a rapid, efficient biodiversity sampling technique that could contribute to better-informed woodland management and conservation planning. It is cost-efficient because samples comprising many species (eg mixed arthropods from pitfall traps) can be sequenced for less than 200 pounds/sample, providing resolution of constituent species at 85% accuracy.The aims of this project are: 1) The student will lead in developing a rapid, inexpensive, fully auditable, and standardised prototype method to assess levels of woodland biodiversity using DNA metabarcoding techniques, seeking to achieve this by focusing in the first instance on a) ground-dwelling arthropods as a hyper-diverse sample group with sensitive taxa known to respond rapidly to environmental change, and b) generating metabarcoding-based biodiversity estimates in a range of semi-natural, plantation and experimental oak-dominated (Quercus robur and Q. petraea) woodland settings, along gradients of stand structural and compositional complexity. Oak woods are highly valued conservation priority semi-natural woodlands, but also widespread and commercially important woodland plantation types. 2) The student will conduct spatially-explicit analyses of biodiversity to understand how ground-dwelling arthropod species richness, functional diversity and redundancy vary in semi-natural compared with plantation oak woodlands across GB, considering regional variations in adjacent land use, climate, biodiversity, and topography. Sampling of semi-natural oak woodlands of conservation importance will contribute to setting region-specific benchmarks of ground-dwelling arthropod diversity in oak woodland.3) Using a blocked experimental design, the student will investigate the influences of different tree species on native ground-dwelling arthropod biodiversity in compositionally diversified oak woodland plots at the Gisburn Experiment in northwest England. Established in 1955, Gisburn planting trials were originally set up to investigate effects of monoculture and mixed -species plantings on forest productivity. 4) Using predictive modelling, the student will extrapolate observed patterns of arthropod biodiversity to unsampled areas of similar oak woodland in GB and to predict future distributions under climate change. A map-based approach will provide visual guidance for forest practitioners and policy makers.The University of Aberdeen (UofA) will lead the project, with Forest Research, an agency of the British Forestry Commission (FC), as its industrial partner. This partnership will ensure efficient knowledge exchange with the most relevant stakeholder bodies and access to the best sampling sites and woodland datasets. Outputs of the study will be directly incorporated by FC managers and passed on to other stakeholders to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of woodland biodiversity management and compliance with policy. The study will directly advance NERC strategic priority areas: supporting biodiversity and nature's services, meeting society's needs, and managing environmental change.

在国际上，保护和加强林地生物多样性被认为是可持续林地管理的一个整体过程，在英国，维持林地生物多样性的行动是《自然环境、农村社区和自然保护法案》规定的。然而，由于缺乏可靠、有效的生物多样性评估方法，旨在维持和增强生物多样性的林地管理战略的制定和评价受到限制。因此，生物多样性保护措施的有效性，包括纳入森林核证制度的措施的有效性，往往得不到充分的了解，也得不到第三方的核查。元条形码有望提供一种快速、有效的生物多样性采样技术，有助于更好地进行林地管理和保护规划。它具有成本效益，因为包含许多物种的样本（例如来自陷阱的混合节肢动物）可以测序少于200磅/个样本，提供85%准确率的组成物种分辨率。该项目的目的是：1)学生将领导开发一种快速、廉价、完全可审计和标准化的原型方法，利用DNA元条形码技术评估林地生物多样性水平，寻求实现这一目标，首先关注a)地面生活节肢动物作为一个高度多样化的样本群，其敏感的分类群已知对环境变化反应迅速；b)在一系列半自然、人工林和实验栎为主的林地，沿林分结构和组成复杂性的梯度。橡树林是高度重视保护的半自然林地，也是分布广泛、具有重要商业价值的人工林类型。2)在考虑邻近土地利用、气候、生物多样性和地形等区域差异的情况下，开展生物多样性的空间明确分析，了解在半自然环境下与人工栎林相比，地栖节肢动物物种丰富度、功能多样性和冗余度的差异。对具有重要保护意义的半自然栎林进行取样，将有助于确定栎林地栖节肢动物多样性的区域基准。3)采用分组实验设计，在英格兰西北部吉斯伯恩实验区，研究不同树种对组成多样化的橡树林地本土地栖节肢动物生物多样性的影响。吉斯伯恩种植试验成立于1955年，最初是为了调查单一栽培和混合种种植对森林生产力的影响。4)利用预测模型，将节肢动物生物多样性的观测模式外推到英国未采样的类似橡树林地，并预测气候变化下的未来分布。基于地图的方法将为森林从业者和决策者提供视觉指导。阿伯丁大学（UofA）将领导该项目，英国林业委员会（FC）下属的森林研究机构（Forest Research）将作为其工业合作伙伴。这种伙伴关系将确保与最相关的利益攸关方机构进行有效的知识交流，并获得最佳采样地点和林地数据集。研究结果将由森林资源管理人员直接纳入，并传递给其他利益相关者，以提高林地生物多样性管理的效率和成本效益，并遵守政策。这项研究将直接推进NERC的战略重点领域：支持生物多样性和自然服务，满足社会需求，以及管理环境变化。