Hedges and edges: landscape effects on forest biodiversity and ecosystem function.

树篱和边缘：景观对森林生物多样性和生态系统功能的影响。

• 批准号: 2287915
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2287915
• 关键词: Hedges; edges; landscape; effects; forest

Forests represent the native climax vegetation of most of Britain and Europe, and are important both for the distinctive set of species they protect and the diverse range of important ecosystem services they provide. Forests are often highly fragmented, and recent conservation guidance argues that larger and better connected patches should be a goal; yet the effects of this patchiness on ecosystem function are poorly studied. This project will explore the effects of forest patch size and isolation -- and in particular of connecting features such as hedgerows or "stepping-stones" -- on the biodiversity of forest specialist taxa in a set of well-studied forest patches of known ages (the WrEN project). It may also be possible to augment this set of sites with additional ""experimental"" woodlots planted as part of farm woodland grant schemes, and other past forest planting initiatives. Remote sensing data will be explored both to measure connectivity, and to test potential links between multispectral reflectance patterns and forest tree composition and structural properties. In addition, the effect of forest patch properties on a subset of ecosystem functions and services will be explored, using surveys of edge-to-centre transects to parameterise models of patch size and biodiversity effects on e.g. above and below-ground carbon storage, and hydrological modulation. This in turn may be used to explore and model the scaling properties of biodiversity:ecosystem function relationships. The supervisory team is multidisciplinary, spanning spatial ecology and geography, with Forest Research as an industrial CASE partner. The work will provide experience in a range of research techniques ranging from field biodiversity surveying, through remote sensing and GIS work to ecosystem service modelling, and thus will provide excellent preparation for a career in research or management.

森林代表了英国和欧洲大部分地区的原生顶极植被，它们保护的独特物种和提供的各种重要生态系统服务都很重要。森林往往是高度分散的，最近的保护指南认为，更大和更好地连接补丁应该是一个目标，但这种斑块对生态系统功能的影响研究甚少。该项目将探索森林斑块大小和隔离度（特别是树篱或“踏脚石”等连接特征）对一组经过充分研究的已知年龄森林斑块中森林专业分类群生物多样性的影响（WrEN项目）。也有可能增加这一套网站与额外的“实验””林地种植的一部分，农场林地赠款计划，和其他过去的森林种植倡议。将对遥感数据进行探索，以测量连通性，并测试多光谱反射模式与森林树木组成和结构特性之间的潜在联系。此外，还将探讨森林斑块特性对生态系统功能和服务子集的影响，利用边缘至中心断面调查，确定斑块大小和生物多样性对地上和地下碳储存和水文调节等影响的参数模型。这反过来又可用于探索和模拟生物多样性的尺度特性：生态系统功能关系。监督团队是多学科的，跨越空间生态学和地理学，森林研究作为工业CASE合作伙伴。这项工作将提供从实地生物多样性调查、遥感和地理信息系统工作到生态系统服务建模等一系列研究技术方面的经验，从而为从事研究或管理职业提供良好的准备。