Restoring for a resilient future: Woodland community assembly trajectories in the face of multiple stressors

恢复弹性未来：面对多重压力源的林地社区集会轨迹

• 批准号: 2737286
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Bangor University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2737286
• 关键词: Restoring; resilient; future; Woodland; community

Ecosystem restoration is proposed internationally as a nature-based climate solution. The UK aims to plant50,000 ha trees per year by 2035. This planting has multiple aims: addressing biodiversity loss, increasingcarbon storage and reaching Net Zero, and bolstering associated ecosystem service co-benefits. Thedirection that restoration trajectories take towards these aims depends upon multiple stressors, includingdrought and land degradation legacies, for instance dominant vegetation that can arrest woodlandsuccession. However, an important stressor - surface-level ozone - remains overlooked. This is despiteevidence of ozone-induced declines in net primary productivity of near 50%. This suggests that the presenceof ozone could seriously compromise multiple restoration goals, particularly Net Zero.We know, for individual trees, that ozone can impair stomatal control and reduce root-to-shoot ratios. Thismakes ozone-affected plants more susceptible to stressors such as drought, and alters water and nutrientuptake relationships. However, we have very limited knowledge of how ozone, when combined with otherstressors, influences community assembly restoration trajectories. We hypothesize that initial restorationtrajectories in the context of multiple stressors will depend on the functional traits of species involved. Thisis because environmental filters (i.e. different stressors) can act on the distribution of functional traits. Atthe same time, stress can alter epigenetics and gene expression with consequences for plant function.This PhD, using experiments and cutting-edge analytical techniques, asks:Does ozone create greater divergence in initial woodland community restoration trajectories in thepresence of additional stressors (drought, co-occurring weed species)?Can relationships among functional traits, ecophysiology and epigenetic mechanisms explaindivergent restoration trajectories?Ultimately, answering these fundamental science questions will help inform tree-planting interventions andmodelling initiatives to ensure resilient restoration trajectories beyond the UN Decade of EcosystemRestoration.

生态系统恢复是国际上提出的一种基于自然的气候解决方案。英国的目标是到2035年每年种植5万公顷树木。这种种植有多个目标：解决生物多样性丧失、增加碳储存和实现净零排放，以及增强相关的生态系统服务共同效益。恢复轨迹朝着这些目标的方向取决于多种压力，包括干旱和土地退化遗留问题，例如可以阻止林地演替的主要植被。然而，一个重要的压力源-地表臭氧-仍然被忽视。尽管臭氧导致净初级生产力下降了近50%，但这仍是一个明显的证据。这表明臭氧的存在可能会严重损害多个恢复目标，特别是净零。我们知道，对于单个树木，臭氧会损害气孔控制并降低根冠比。这使得受臭氧影响的植物更容易受到干旱等压力因素的影响，并改变了水和养分的吸收关系。然而，我们有非常有限的知识臭氧，当与othersressors相结合，影响社区集会恢复轨迹。我们假设，在多种压力的背景下，初始的pactiontrajectories将取决于所涉及的物种的功能性状。这是因为环境过滤器（即不同的压力源）可以作用于功能特征的分布。与此同时，压力可以改变表观遗传学和基因表达，对植物功能产生影响。这位博士，使用实验和尖端的分析技术，问：臭氧是否会在额外的压力源（干旱，共同出现的杂草物种）存在的情况下，在最初的林地群落恢复轨迹中产生更大的分歧？功能性状、生态生理学和表观遗传机制之间的关系能解释不同的恢复轨迹吗？最终，回答这些基本科学问题将有助于为植树干预和建模举措提供信息，以确保在联合国生态系统恢复十年之后的恢复轨迹。