The dynamics of insect biodiversity in novel British landscapes

在这个博士项目中，你将使用CEH， RHS和其他数据库来量化不同空间尺度（从当地社区到全国）和不同时间长度的昆虫建立率。这些速度将与灭绝速度进行比较，调查在何种情况下，总体多样性正在减少或增加。您还将结合您自己的实地调查（包括在RHS花园）和公民科学项目（从园丁和其他人那里收集反馈），并进一步分析现有数据，以检查特定昆虫殖民者的动态。这将使您能够分析自英国建立以来的分布变化率，入侵者丰度的地理趋势，以及气候，人类介导的传播（包括园艺贸易）和新环境（栖息地变化，栖息地异质性，园艺种植和归化植物）对物种建立的相对贡献。

In this PhD project, you will use CEH, RHS and other databases to quantify toestablishment rates of insects at different spatial scales (from local communitiesto the whole country), and over different lengths of time. These rates will becompared with rates of extinction, investigating the circumstances under whichoverall diversity is declining or increasing. You will also use a combination ofyour own fieldwork (including at RHS gardens) and citizen science projects(gathering feedback from gardeners and others), and further analysis of existingdata, to examine the dynamics of particular insect colonists. This will allow youto analyse rates of distribution change since establishment in Britain, geographictrends in the abundances of invaders, and the relative contributions of climate,human-mediated dispersal (including the horticultural trade), and novelenvironments (habitat change, habitat heterogeneity, horticultural plantingsand naturalised plants) to the establishment of species.