Does pollinator diversity moderate ecosystem function in agroforestry systems?

传粉媒介多样性是否会调节农林业系统中的生态系统功能？

• 批准号: 2754359
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Reading
• 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-2754359
• 关键词: Does; pollinator; diversity; moderate; ecosystem

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.

农林业，广义上定义为将树木融入耕作系统，是一种在整个欧洲获得巨大吸引力的方法，实施农林目前是欧盟共同农业政策的一个选项。关于农林业如何能够增强昆虫生物多样性的证据正在增加；然而，对这些系统和其他新的可持续系统的评价传统上侧重于物种丰富度或丰富度的生态措施，而不是农民的切实利益。这项研究将极大地促进我们对无脊椎动物多样性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，我们将采用一种新的方法来研究农林业对传粉者功能特性多样性的影响。本研究将解决两个关键问题：1.在农牧区实施农林业是否能改善传粉者功能多样性、生态系统功能、作物产量和农场收入？2.在不同的农业系统中，农林业能在多大程度上帮助缓解授粉逆差，提高传粉者的复原力、多样性和生态系统功能？田间/实验室工作。学生将采用实地和实验室相结合的方法，研究农林复合系统如何影响昆虫群落的功能特征，并对农林复合系统中的生态系统功能(授粉)做出贡献。学生将把他们自己的实地研究产生的数据与督导团队持有的预先存在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者多样性和生态系统功能随时间的变化的影响。我们最新的研究使用了最先进的传粉者模型(Poll4op)来模拟整个英国的授粉服务，预测英格兰东部将出现严重的赤字。这表明迫切需要了解如何改变耕作做法，以便在不降低农场盈利能力的情况下改善这些地区的生态系统功能，因为这可能对农民的吸收产生重大影响。学生将使用他们自己和预先存在的实地数据来增强poll4op模型，以便它真实地结合农林业对授粉者群落的影响。他们将应用这一改进的模型来研究农林业是否可以在保持农场盈利的同时帮助缓解预测的授粉赤字。