Valuing ecosystem services provided by UK bats under climate change

鉴于全球生物多样性的明显下降是由人类活动造成的，迫切需要了解自然对人类的贡献，以及生物多样性下降将如何影响自然。蝙蝠被认为通过抑制害虫种群来提供重要的生态系统服务。分子方法揭示了蝙蝠对各种害虫物种的消耗[例如1]。然而，这些害虫控制服务的实际经济贡献仅针对美国的一种蝙蝠和一种作物害虫进行了评估[2]。在英国，对蝙蝠提供的生态系统服务及其经济价值缺乏了解，这阻碍了对蝙蝠保护的宣传以及农业和林业部门参与保护蝙蝠。气候变化是对生物多样性及其提供的生态系统服务的重大威胁。据预测，蝙蝠在未来气候变化下将经历范围收缩和分布变化[3]，但关于这些范围变化将如何与害虫分布变化相互作用并影响未来的害虫防治服务，人们知之甚少。这个跨学科的项目结合了生态学、分子、模型和经济学的方法，以量化英国蝙蝠提供的生态系统服务，并预测它们将如何受到未来气候变化的影响。通过与我们的CASE合作伙伴BAT保护信托基金和我们的合作伙伴Natural England合作，以及与跨欧洲气候变化和BATS成本行动网络的链接，该项目将为BAT保护宣传提供证据基础。这名博士生将制定以下目标：1.通过确定英国蝙蝠对主要农业和森林害虫的消耗程度，测试蝙蝠的生态系统作用。英格兰各地广泛的实地采样将与分子工具(DNA元编码)相结合，以确定英国蝙蝠的饮食特征，并识别参与控制耕地、牧场和森林害虫种群的关键蝙蝠物种。对蝙蝠通过抑制虫害对英国农业和林业部门的贡献进行经济评估。估值将基于目标1的数据，并结合埃克塞特大学开发的自然环境在线估值(NEVO)工具，该工具对英国农业和林业部门的经济活动和价值进行建模。PHD项目将通过与蝙蝠相关的害虫抑制服务来扩展该工具。未来气候变化对英国蝙蝠及其提供的虫害防治服务的影响模型。使用生态位模型预测关键蝙蝠物种及其害虫猎物分布的未来变化，评估未来分布不匹配及其对提供虫害防治服务的影响。

Given the stark anthropogenically-driven global decline of biodiversity, there is an urgent need to understand nature's contribution to people and how it will be affected by biodiversity decline. Bats are thought to provide important ecosystem services through the suppression of insect pest populations. Molecular approaches have revealed the consumption of a variety of insect pest species by bats [e.g. 1]. However, the actual economic contribution of these pest control services has only been evaluated for one bat species and one crop pest in the USA [2]. In the UK, lack of knowledge about the ecosystem services provided by bats and their economic value is hampering advocacy for bat conservation and engagement of the agricultural and forestry sectors in their conservation. Climate change is a major threat to biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide. Bats are predicted to experience range contractions and distributional changes under future climate change [3], but little is known about how these range changes will interact with insect pest distribution changes and affect future pest control services.This interdisciplinary project combines ecological, molecular, modelling and economic approaches to quantify the ecosystem services provided by UK bats and predict how they will be impacted by future climate change. Through working with our CASE partner, the Bat Conservation Trust, and our collaborative partner, Natural England, and linking to a cross-European COST Action Network on climate change and bats, this project will provide the evidence-base for bat conservation advocacy. The PhD student will develop the following objectives: 1. Test the ecosystem role of bats through identifying the extent of consumption of major agricultural and forest pests by UK bats. Extensive field sampling across England will be coupled with molecular tools (DNA metabarcoding) to characterise the diet of UK bats and identify key bat species involved in the control of insect pest populations in arable land, pasture and forests.2. Carry out economic valuation of the contribution of bats to the UK agricultural and forestry sectors through pest suppression. Valuation will be made based on data from objective 1 combined with the Natural Environment Valuation Online (NEVO) tool developed by the University of Exeter, which models the economic activity and value of the agricultural and forestry sectors in the UK. The PhD project will expand this tool with bat-related pest suppression services.3. Model impacts of future climate change on UK bats and the pest control services they provide. Use ecological niche models to predict future changes in the distribution of key bat species and their insect pest prey and assess future distributional mismatches and their impact on the provision of pest control services.