The dynamics of insect biodiversity in novel British landscapes

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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.