Spatial extent and impact of aquatic resources on terrestrial communities, individuals and trophic dynamics in tropical and temperate forests

对于我的博士学位，我的目标是扩大我们对水陆联系如何影响陆地群落和营养结构的理解，确定这些影响离水生来源有多远仍然显著，调查不同生物群系和跨纬度之间观察到的任何模式的普遍性，并为决策者的应用建立模型。利用氮和碳稳定同位素分析和贝叶斯分析，我将跟踪水生资源进入陆地食物网的通量，并评估在离溪流150米的横断面上，群落和物种水平上消费者饮食宽度（以及其他同位素指标；Layman和Post， 2008）的变化。我将通过样带点、溪流和站点之间的α和β多样性、丰度和生物量的变化来测量群落结构响应。通过在巴西和欧洲的多个地点进行标准化的采样方法，我将能够比较和对比不同气候带（热带、温带）、森林类型（亚马逊、大西洋雨林、针叶林和阔叶林）和纬度（苏格兰到大西洋雨林）之间的模式。最后，我的目标是利用这个来自两大洲的大约700个采样群落的广泛数据集，开发一个包含营养动力学和环境参数的空间模型。该模型的目的是根据地理位置、森林类型和物种组成，估计需要多大的河岸缓冲区才能涵盖完整的跨生态系统动态。大型数据集将被格式化，上传到服务器上，供未来的假设探索使用。

For my PhD I aim to expand our understanding of how aquatic-terrestrial linkages impact terrestrial community and trophic structures, determine how far away from an aquatic source these impacts remain significant, investigate the generality of any observed patterns between distinct biomes and across latitude, and model the results for application by policymakers. Using nitrogen and carbon stable isotope analysis with Bayesian analyses I will track the flux of aquatic resources into terrestrial food webs and evaluate changes in the dietary breadth (and other isotopic metrics; Layman and Post, 2008) of consumers at the community and species level along 150m transects away from streams. I will measure community structure responses as changes in alpha and beta diversity, abundance and biomass between transect points, streams and sites. Through having a standardised method of sampling carried out in multiple sites in Brazil and Europe, I will be able to compare and contrast patterns between different climatic zones (tropical, temperate), forest types (Amazon, Atlantic rainforest, conifer plantation and broadleaf forest), and latitudes (Scotland to Atlantic Rainforest). Finally, I aim to use this extensive dataset of approx 700 sampled communities, from across two continents, to develop a spatial model incorporating trophic dynamics and environmental parameters. This model will aim to estimate how wide riparian buffer zones need to be to encompass full cross-ecosystem dynamics, depending on geographic location, forest type and species compositions. The large dataset will be formatted, uploaded to a server and made available for future hypotheses to be explored.