Are wood ants ecosystem engineers? Assessing impacts during range expansion

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This project will combine biogeochemical field data and ecological modelling to quantify and predict how wood ants affect regional forest soil function. Thestudent will enjoy interacting with academics and stakeholders from a range of backgrounds and want to apply their scientific training to an importantapplied question.Forestry, mainly plantations, occupies 13% of British land area. The fragmentation of British woodlands adds further challenges, particularly forlocally dispersing habitat specialists, e.g. wood ants (Formica rufa group). These species, threatened across Europe, are key components of woodlandecosystems. Recent work indicates wood ant populations in the North York Moors are expanding from ancient woodland into plantations. This ongoingexpansion allows us to explore the impact of ant behavior on forest function within forests with long-term, recent and no ant nest presence.Ant mapping data, including 3 years' expansion at population margins, will be used to identify sampling sites in which ant behavior and a range of soilfunctional data will be collected (e.g.- soil pH, trace gas fluxes, bulk density and nutrient loading). These data will be used to quantify the impact of ant presenceon soil qualities and function and this may be used to predict invasive impacts. There is a significant field work component that will be combined withsubstantial laboratory analyses.Objectivesa) To predict the impact on soil function of the spread into new habitat of a woodland specialistSpecifically to quantify:i. The impact on soil chemical/physical properties over short and longer-term time scalesii. The impact on soil microbial community over short and longer time scalesb) To provide advice for forest managers regarding ecological and climate impact of management activitiesApplications and benefitsThe student will receive thorough postgraduate training supported by a multidisciplinary team of supervisors with strong research backgrounds andexperience in postgraduate supervision. The student will gain ecological research skills including: empirical field techniques; cutting-edge laboratoryequipment techniques; spatial analysis methods. This study will provide novel data on dispersal impacts in woodland species: it will benefit the academicecology/evolution communities, policy-makers and forest managers.