Ants as ecosystem engineers: using ants to promote biodiversity

蚂蚁作为生态系统工程师：利用蚂蚁促进生物多样性

• 批准号: 2751667
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of York
• 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-2751667
• 关键词: Ants; ecosystem; engineers; using; ants

We are looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious student to develop an exciting project using fieldexperiments to quantify the relationship between meadow ants and management regimes, and howthese together affect biodiversity and soil function. The ideal candidate will enjoy interacting with bothacademics and stakeholders and will want to apply their scientific training to an important appliedquestion.Ants act as effective geoengineers, increasing habitat heterogeneity and constructing niches. Yellowmeadow ants, Lasius flavus, were historically common on pastures and promote biodiversity, forexample increasing floral species richness. Many modern farming practices reduce or eliminate theirpopulations.Belton House, a National Trust property including 650 hectares of historic wood pasture parkland, a UKpriority habitat, has areas hosting unusually high densities of meadow ants, but also other areas wherethey are entirely absent. Previous management of the site has resulted in some over-grazing and soilcompaction. The site is undergoing a period of management change, to a more biodiversity-friendlyapproach of mixed and lighter grazing.Objectives- To assess the impact of management regimes on ant populations, using controlled manipulations- To assess the role of soil-dwelling ants as agents of rehabilitation of compacted soil usingexperimental transplantation- To identify the ecological processes mediating the unusually high ant population densities at certainsites, using behavioural and genetic dataProject benefitsThe student will receive thorough postgraduate training supported by a multidisciplinary team ofsupervisors with strong research backgrounds and experience in postgraduate supervision. The studentwill gain ecological research skills including: empirical field techniques; cutting-edge laboratoryequipment techniques; spatial analysis methods. This study will provide novel data on the impact ofants on soil rehabilitation and ecosystem function, and on how grassland management impacts theseprocesses: it will benefit the academic ecology/evolution communities, policy-makers and landmanagers.

我们正在寻找一个充满热情和雄心勃勃的学生来开发一个令人兴奋的项目，使用实地实验来量化草甸蚂蚁和管理制度之间的关系，以及它们如何共同影响生物多样性和土壤功能。理想的候选人将喜欢与学者和利益相关者互动，并希望将他们的科学训练应用于重要的应用问题。蚂蚁作为有效的地球工程师，增加栖息地的异质性和构建生态位。黄草甸蚂蚁（Lasius flavus）在历史上普遍存在于牧场，并促进了生物多样性，例如增加了花卉物种的丰富度。许多现代农业实践减少或消灭了它们的数量。贝尔顿之家是一个国家信托财产，包括650公顷的历史悠久的森林牧场公园，这是英国的优先栖息地，这里有密度异常高的草甸蚂蚁，但也有完全没有草甸蚂蚁的地方。以前对该地区的管理导致了一些过度放牧和土壤压实。该地区正在经历一段管理变革时期，以一种更有利于生物多样性的混合放牧和更轻的放牧方式。目的-评估管理制度对蚂蚁种群的影响，使用控制操作-评估土居蚂蚁作为使用实验性移植修复压实土壤的代理人的作用-确定在某些地点介导异常高蚂蚁种群密度的生态过程。使用行为和基因数据项目收益该学生将在具有强大研究背景和研究生指导经验的多学科导师团队的支持下接受全面的研究生培训。学生将获得生态研究技能，包括：实地经验技术；先进的实验室设备技术；空间分析方法。本研究将提供植物对土壤恢复和生态系统功能影响的新数据，以及草地管理如何影响这些过程，这将有利于生态学/进化学界、政策制定者和土地管理者。