Authentication of Sustainable Oil Palm Production for Protection of Tropical Biodiversity

据估计，东南亚地区拥有2,710万公顷的泥炭地，占全球总面积的6%，同时也生产了全球近一半的毛棕榈油。油棕榈树种植的可持续性面临的主要挑战是确定和防止在新砍伐的土地上种植，特别是在泥炭地上种植。将新砍伐的热带森林和任何森林泥炭地转变为油棕榈园违反了可持续棕榈油圆桌会议(RSPO)的标准和原则，RSPO是一个由商业油棕榈树种植者组成的非营利性成员组织，支持通过制定行业范围的认证标准来实现更大的油棕榈树可持续性。为了获得认证，种植者必须承诺遵守一套环境和社会原则和标准，其中包括避免在最近砍伐的土地和泥炭等有机土壤上新种植。目前，对符合这些标准的核查是通过PalmTrace工具使用基于记录的检查系统进行的，该工具对供应链进行核查。然而，这一系统目前缺乏对认证产品中油棕榈油原产地的任何外部认证机制。根据RSPO的可持续性原则种植的油棕榈树认证和跟踪系统将显著加强对现有油棕榈树种植园生物多样性的保护，并降低在最近砍伐的土地和泥炭地新种植的利润。因此，该项目的目的是开发一种新的分析方法，可以确定加工棕榈油的地理来源，以便区分来自新砍伐土地和第二轮轮作或老种植园的最终产品，以及从泥炭和矿物土壤种植的油料的最终产品之间的区别。指导性假设是，植物衍生产品的起源可以通过元素或稳定同位素组成或其代谢组学特征来检测植物材料中的独特化学特征。这将通过对植物组织的极性和非极性代谢物的精确分析来测试，包括干叶、油和加工的最终产品。该项目将与东南亚雨林研究伙伴关系(SEARRP)和RSPO合作进行，使用东南亚商业油棕榈园内的实地地点。博士生将获得一系列关键技能，包括(I)对化学、气候变化和保护科学的高级概念理解，以便在跨越这些领域的职业生涯中竞争进步；(Ii)与具有全球重要性的海外利益攸关方联系的经验；(Iii)使用最先进的组学，特别是脂类组学平台分析脂肪和油类的专门知识；(Iv)使用电感耦合等离子体质谱仪和其他系统进行痕量元素分析的专门知识；(V)使用专业开源软件进行多元建模和大规模数据集的高级专门知识；(Vi)分析方法验证方面的经验；以及(Vii)通过领导/参与为主要期刊撰写出版物而获得的科学写作方面的高级专门知识。

The Southeast Asian region is estimated to have 27.1 million hectares of peatlands, or 6% of the global total, while also producing nearly half of global crude palm oil. The main challenges for sustainability of oil palm cultivation are to identify and prevent planting on newly deforested land and particularly on peatlands. The conversion of newly deforested tropical forests and any forested peatlands to oil palm plantations contravenes the criteria and principles of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a non-profit membership organisation of commercial oil palm growers supporting the move towards greater sustainability of oil palm through the development of an industry-wide certification standard. In order to be certified, growers have to commit to a set of environmental and social principles and criteria, which includes avoidance of new planting on recently deforested land and on organic soils such as peat. Currently the verification of conformity to these standards is conducted using a records-based system of checks through the PalmTrace tool, which verifies the supply chain. However, this system currently lacks any mechanism of external authentication of the origin of the oil palm in certified products. An accepted authentication and tracking system for oil palm grown under the sustainability principles of the RSPO would significantly enhance the protection of biodiversity on existing oil palm plantations and reduce the profitability of new planting on recently deforested lands and peatlands.Therefore, the aim of this project is to develop a novel analytical method that could determine the geographical origin of processed palm oil in order to differentiate end-products derived from newly deforested lands vs second rotation or older plantations, and between end products from oil grown on peat and mineral soils. The guiding hypothesis is that the origin of a plant-derived product can be detected as a unique chemical signature in the plant material in terms of elemental or stable isotope composition, or through its metabolomics profile. This will be tested through precise analyses of the polar and non-polar metabolites of plant tissues, including dried leaves, oil and processed end-products This project will be conducted in partnership with the Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP) and the RSPO using field sites within commercial oil palm plantations across Southeast Asia.The PhD candidate will gain a range of critical skills, including (i) an advanced conceptual understanding of chemistry, climate change and conservation sciences for competitive progression in a career spanning these fields; (ii) experience in liaising with overseas stakeholders of global importance (iii) expertise in the analysis of fats and oils using state-of-the-art omics and especially lipidomics platforms (iv) expertise in trace elemental analysis using ICP-MS and other systems, (v) advanced expertise in multivariate modelling and large-scale datasets using the specialised open source software, (vi) experience in analytical method validation and (vii) advanced expertise in scientific writing gained through leadership/participation in the preparation of publications for leading journals.