Does pollinator diversity moderate ecosystem function in agroforestry systems?

农林业，广义地定义为将树木整合到农业系统中，是在整个欧洲获得重大牵引力的一种方法，目前在欧盟共同农业政策中实施农林业是一种选择。关于农林业如何增强昆虫生物多样性的证据越来越多；然而，对这些和其他新型可持续系统的评价传统上侧重于物种丰富度或丰度的生态措施，而不是对农民的实际利益。这项研究将极大地促进我们对无脊椎动物多样性的增加是否有助于生态系统功能的理解，或者这些增加是否在功能上是多余的。为此，我们将采用新的方法来研究农林业对传粉者功能性状多样性的影响。这个学生将解决两个关键问题：1。在耕地和牧区实施农林业是否能改善传粉者的功能多样性、生态系统功能、作物产量和农业收入？农林业在多大程度上有助于缓解传粉不足，提高不同农业系统中传粉者的恢复力、多样性和生态系统功能？场/实验室工作。学生将采用实地和实验室相结合的方法来研究农林业系统如何影响昆虫群落的功能特征，并有助于耕地和牧区农林业系统的生态系统功能（授粉）。学生将把他们自己的实地研究产生的数据与监督团队持有的已有的多年数据集结合起来。这将使他们能够进行第一次纵向研究，以调查实施农林业对传粉媒介多样性和生态系统功能随时间变化的影响。我们的最新研究使用了最先进的传粉者模型（poll4pop）来模拟整个英国的传粉服务，预测英格兰东部的传粉服务严重不足。这表明，迫切需要了解如何在不降低农业盈利能力的情况下改变农业做法，以改善这些地区的生态系统功能，而农业盈利能力会严重影响农民的吸收。学生将使用他们自己和已有的实地数据来增强poll4pop模型，使其实际地纳入农林业对传粉者群落的影响。他们将应用这一改进的模型来调查农林业是否有助于缓解预测的授粉不足，同时保持农场的盈利能力。

Agroforestry, broadly defined as the integration of trees into farming systems, is an approach gaining significant traction across Europe, and implementation of agroforestry is currently an option in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Evidence on how agroforestry can enhance insect biodiversity is growing; however, evaluations of these and other novel sustainable systems have traditionally focused on ecological measures of species richness or abundance rather than tangible benefits to farmers. This studentship will significantly advance our understanding of whether increases in invertebrate diversity contribute to ecosystem functioning or whether these increases are functionally redundant. To do this we will take the novel approach of investigating the effects of agroforestry on pollinator functional trait diversity.This studentship will address two key questions:1. Does implementation of agroforestry in arable and pastoral regions improve pollinator functional diversity, ecosystem functioning, crop yields and farm income?2. To what degree could agroforestry help to mitigate pollination deficit and enhance pollinator resilience, diversity, and ecosystem functioning in different agricultural systems?FIELD/LAB WORK. The student will employ a combination of field and laboratory approaches to investigate how agroforestry systems can influence the functional traits of insect communities and contribute to ecosystem functioning (pollination) in both arable and pastoral agroforestry systems. The student will combine data generated from their own field research with a pre-existing multi-year dataset held by the supervisory team. This will enable them to conduct the first longitudinal study to investigate the effects of implementing agroforestry on changes in pollinator diversity and ecosystem functioning over time.MODELLING. Our latest research used a state-of-the-art pollinator model (poll4pop) to simulate pollination services across Great Britain, predicting significant deficits in eastern England. This suggests an urgent need to understand how farming practices could be modified to improve ecosystem functioning in these areas without reducing farm profitability, which can strongly influence farmer uptake. The student will use their own and pre-existing field data to augment the poll4pop model so that it realistically incorporates the impacts of agroforestry on pollinator communities. They will apply this improved model to investigate whether agroforestry could help mitigate predicted pollination deficits whilst maintaining farm profitability.