Understanding and managing connectivity across habitat types: the case of avian pollinators with altitudinal movement in the tropical Andes mountains

了解和管理跨栖息地类型的连通性：热带安第斯山脉中鸟类传粉媒介的高度运动案例

• 批准号: 2607534
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Aberdeen
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2607534
• 关键词: Understanding; managing; connectivity; across; habitat

Are you interested in spatial ecology and in developing methods that can inform the next generation of conservation approaches for marine, terrestrial and freshwater systems? Do you want to work with a dynamic team on a project that you can lead in your own direction? Connectivity has become a key concept in ecology and conservation. There is now broad recognition that species have more robust spatial population dynamics when there is connectivity between patches of suitable habitat. There has been a rapid increase in management that focuses explicitly on increasing connectivity across terrestrial, marine and freshwater systems. Current understanding and management of connectivity focuses on connections between patches of the same type of habitat. Typically, people are interested in how well-connected forest patches are across a landscape or how well reefs, and thus fish populations, are connected by ocean currents. For species that live their whole lives in a single habitat type this is likely to be a sufficient consideration of connectivity. However, many species have more complex life-histories and, for these species, connectivity is much more complex and is poorly understood. Many species spend part of the year in one habitat and another part of the year in another habitat. This seasonal migration can occur over huge distances or be more local in nature as, for example, in altitudinal migrations. Many other species are dependent on a different habitat as a juvenile to that which they require as an adult. An excellent example of this is in marine systems where many fish species that inhabit reefs as adults are dependent upon mangroves or seagrass habitat as juveniles (Mumby et al. 2006). For these species we need to understand not only connectivity between breeding habitat patches but also between habitat used in different seasons or in different life-stages.This PhD project will address this knowledge gap by developing novel methods for assessing connectivity in species with these more complex spatial life-histories. These methods will then be used to determine how we should manage landscapes (or seascapes) for connectivity where we need to account not only for connectivity between areas of habitat where a species breed, but also for connectivity between habitat used in different seasons or at different life-stages. Substantial data already exist so a fully desk-based project is possible. However, depending upon the student's interest (and the situation with COVID), there is also the potential for field work to gather novel data for parameterising and validating the models. We are flexible on which system the field work might be in; possibilities include altitudinal migration of birds or bats in the Andes (Hsiung et al. 2018) and reef fish connectivity in the Indo Pacific. Training will be provided in individual-based modelling (Bocedi et al. 2014), statistics and fieldwork.

您对空间生态学以及开发可为下一代海洋、陆地和淡水系统保护方法提供信息的方法感兴趣吗？您想与一个充满活力的团队合作开展一个您可以按照自己的方向领导的项目吗？连通性已成为生态和保护的一个关键概念。现在人们广泛认识到，当适宜栖息地的斑块之间存在连通性时，物种具有更强大的空间种群动态。管理工作迅速增加，明确侧重于增强陆地、海洋和淡水系统之间的连通性。目前对连通性的理解和管理侧重于同一类型栖息地斑块之间的连接。通常，人们感兴趣的是整个景观中森林斑块的连接程度，或者珊瑚礁以及鱼类种群通过洋流的连接程度。对于一生都生活在单一栖息地类型中的物种来说，这可能是对连通性的充分考虑。然而，许多物种具有更复杂的生活史，并且对于这些物种来说，连通性要复杂得多并且人们知之甚少。许多物种一年中的一部分时间在一个栖息地度过，另一部分时间则在另一个栖息地度过。这种季节性迁徙可能发生在很远的距离，也可能在本质上更局部，例如海拔迁徙。许多其他物种在幼年时依赖于不同的栖息地，而在成年后则需要不同的栖息地。一个很好的例子是在海洋系统中，许多成年鱼类栖息在珊瑚礁中，幼鱼则依赖红树林或海草栖息地（Mumby 等，2006）。对于这些物种，我们不仅需要了解繁殖栖息地斑块之间的连通性，还需要了解不同季节或不同生命阶段使用的栖息地之间的连通性。该博士项目将通过开发新方法来评估具有这些更复杂的空间生活史的物种的连通性，从而解决这一知识差距。然后，这些方法将用于确定我们应该如何管理景观（或海景）的连通性，我们不仅需要考虑物种繁殖的栖息地区域之间的连通性，而且还需要考虑不同季节或不同生命阶段使用的栖息地之间的连通性。大量数据已经存在，因此完全基于桌面的项目是可能的。然而，根据学生的兴趣（以及新冠病毒的情况），现场工作也有可能收集新的数据来参数化和验证模型。我们对现场工作可能使用的系统持灵活态度；可能性包括安第斯山脉鸟类或蝙蝠的高度迁徙（Hsiung 等人，2018）以及印度太平洋珊瑚礁鱼类的连通性。将提供基于个人的建模（Bocedi 等人，2014）、统计和实地工作方面的培训。