Evaluating how plant community composition influences natural enemy biodiversity and pest regulation services in temperate agroforestry systems

这个项目的主要目的是与林地信托基金合作，为他们提供足够的证据，鼓励和优化农地上的树木综合利用。这被称为农林间作，即将植树纳入农业生产的耕作制度。这些系统通常受益于授粉服务和生物多样性的增加，与传统的单一作物种植相比，可以实现更高的生产效率。对这些系统设计的修改可以通过提高生物多样性栖息地的质量来进一步提高生产力，使生物多样性衍生的生态系统服务进一步融入生产。在这个项目中，学生将接受各种实地工作技术的培训，并将产生新的数据集，以：1)调查植物群落组成和农林业提供的自然有害生物防治服务之间的联系；和2)开发和测试新的管理实践，为更具生态功能的农林复合系统提供增强的害虫调控服务。利用这些研究中产生的数据，结合我们先前在农林复合系统中关于碳、生物多样性、授粉和产量(作物和树木)的数据集，学生将获得量化方法方面的培训，以：3)对农林复合系统提供的害虫调控和授粉服务的经济价值进行建模；以及4)调查农林复合系统提供的不同生态系统服务之间的权衡。

"The overarching aim of this studentship is to work with the Woodland Trust to provide them with sufficient evidence to encourage and optimise integrated tree use on agricultural land. This is known as agroforestry, i.e. farming systems that incorporate the cultivation of trees into agricultural production. These systems often benefit from increased pollination services and biodiversity, and can achieve higher production efficiency, relative to conventional mono-cropping. Modifications to the design of these systems could enable further increases in productivity by enhancing the quality of habitats for biodiversity, enabling further integration of biodiversity derived ecosystem services into production.During this project the student will be trained in a variety of fieldwork techniques and will generate new data sets to:1) investigate the links between plant community composition and natural pest regulation services provided by agroforestry; and2) develop and test novel management practices to provide more eco-functional agroforestry systems with enhanced pest regulation servicesUsing the data generated in these studies in combination with our pre-existing data sets on carbon, biodiversity, pollination and yield (crop and tree) in agroforestry systems, the student will gain training in quantitative methods to:3) model the economic value of both pest regulation and pollination services provided by agroforestry systems; and4) investigate the trade-offs between the different ecosystem services provided by agroforestry."