Small carnivore ecology and the impact of heavy metals in the environment

小型食肉动物生态与环境中重金属的影响

• 批准号: 2787554
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: CARDIFF 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-2787554
• 关键词: Small; carnivore; ecology; impact; heavy

The student will be at the intersection between ecotoxicology, wildlife, conservation and agriculture and will develop skills relevant to those topics and transferrable to other disciplines. Habitat fragmentation and degradation by human activities, particularly agricultural development, threatens global biodiversity. An example of such is the floodplain of the Lower Kinabatangan river in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) where tropical rainforests have been replaced with oil palm plantations. The Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS) consists of several forest fragments on either side of the river which are connected to each other forming a corridor for wildlife movement along the river. Of particular interest is the presence of top predators in the plantations surrounding the LKWS and who forage on the small mammal populations associated with the oil palms. Previously we have identified an increase of multiple heavy metals on the hair of Malay civets and the fat tissue of monitor lizards inhabiting oil palm plantations, however, we don't know yet whether these observations extend to other small carnivores and what is their impact on the species' population dynamics. This project will focus on studying small carnivores inhabiting the LKWS and who are exposed to metal bioaccumulation due to their position in the food chain and the access to prey that carries such metals. To address this aim, the student will on one hand identify the presence of heavy metals in the agricultural setting around LKWS, and using samples collected form small carnivores trapped in the plantations, assess the presence of such heavy metals on the animals (e.g. in their hair). On the other hand, the student will study the small carnivores with genetic markers (e.g. ddRad-seq) to characterise their genetic diversity and population structure, and then jointly assess if particular individuals or populations are more susceptible to contamination than others. The information derived from this work will contribute to the development and update of species management plans in Sabah, and will highlight the role of metal bioaccumulation on small carnivores. The supervisors have a complementary and unique combination of skills that will maximise the support provided to the student during the various parts of the project. The supervisory team is made of Dr. Pablo Orozco-terWengel (main supervisor, Cardiff University), a population geneticist and conservation geneticist with ample experience in tropical molecular ecology, Dr. Claus Svendsen (co-supervisor, CEH) who is an expert on pesticides and bioavailability, Prof. Benoit Goossens (co-supervisor, Cardiff University) a conservationist with ample experience in the tropics and director of Cardiff's Danau Girang Field Centre in Sabah where the work will take place, and Prof. Jason Weeks (co-supervisor, Joint Nature Conservation Committee) who has a wealth of experience on monitoring the impact of pollution and chemicals on wildlife.

学生将处于生态毒理学，野生动物，保护和农业之间的交叉点，并将发展与这些主题相关的技能，并可转移到其他学科。人类活动，特别是农业发展造成的生境破碎和退化威胁着全球生物多样性。其中一个例子是沙巴（马来西亚婆罗洲）的Kinabatangan河下游的洪泛区，那里的热带雨林已被油棕种植园所取代。下Kinabatangan野生动物保护区（LKWS）由河流两侧的几个森林片段组成，这些森林片段相互连接，形成野生动物沿着河流移动的走廊。特别令人感兴趣的是，在LKWS周围的种植园中存在顶级捕食者，他们以与油棕榈相关的小型哺乳动物种群为食。此前，我们已经发现马来果子狸的毛发和居住在油棕种植园的巨蜥的脂肪组织中多种重金属含量增加，然而，我们还不知道这些观察结果是否延伸到其他小型食肉动物，以及它们对该物种种群动态的影响。该项目将侧重于研究栖息在LKWS的小型食肉动物，这些食肉动物由于在食物链中的地位以及获得携带此类金属的猎物而暴露于金属生物累积。为了实现这一目标，学生一方面将确定重金属在LKWS周围的农业环境中的存在，并使用从被困在种植园中的小型食肉动物收集的样本，评估这些重金属在动物上的存在（例如在它们的头发中）。另一方面，学生将研究具有遗传标记（例如ddRad-seq）的小型食肉动物，以确定其遗传多样性和种群结构，然后共同评估特定个体或种群是否比其他个体或种群更容易受到污染。从这项工作中获得的信息将有助于发展和更新的物种管理计划在沙巴，并将突出的作用，金属生物积累的小型食肉动物。主管有一个互补的和独特的技能组合，将最大限度地提供给学生在项目的各个部分的支持。监督团队由巴勃罗·奥罗斯科-特温格尔博士组成（卡迪夫大学主要导师），一位在热带分子生态学方面具有丰富经验的种群遗传学家和保护遗传学家，（共同监督，CEH）谁是农药和生物利用度专家，教授Benoit Goossens（卡迪夫大学联合主管）是一位在热带地区拥有丰富经验的自然资源保护主义者，也是沙巴的卡迪夫达瑙吉朗野外中心的主任，以及Jason Weeks教授（联合自然保护委员会联席主管），他在监测污染和化学品对野生动物的影响方面拥有丰富的经验。