Promoting a nature-positive future: how to measure biodiversity to assess habitat restoration success

生物多样性对于生态系统服务和抵御全球变化至关重要，但在全球范围内正在下降。最近的监管变化要求生物多样性报告、抵消和自然积极成果，这为保护的私人融资创造了一个市场，但缺乏广泛适用的机制：NERC通过其最近的“生物多样性经济学”呼吁认识到了这一点。监督团队与广泛的利益相关者合作，已获得NERC资助，以开发“生物多样性信用项目（BCP）”。制定生物多样性信用标准，允许购买信用以确保增加生物多样性，将为生物多样性保护开辟大规模投资。投资者的兴趣很大，已经出售了420万个生物多样性信贷。我们的BCP团队正在努力确保它提供真实的效益（从碳信用额中吸取教训）。为了确保可靠地评估生物多样性的改善，我们的项目正在开发广泛适用的快速生物多样性调查技术，并在一系列栖息地进行测试。在我的博士项目中，我将在2024年和2025年期间进行额外的数据收集，该数据建立在2023年春季/夏季在苏塞克斯郡Knepp Estate Rewilding项目和诺丁汉郡Attenborough自然保护区收集的基线BCP数据的基础上。具体而言，旨在：1。扩大生物多样性衡量标准的范围，将地球化学和稳定同位素分析纳入其中2。测试生物多样性指标如何随时间变化3.测试关键类群如何响应恢复管理4.开发方法（半）自动识别鸟类物种的音频记录-优先为我们的案例合作伙伴，操作Wallacea研究将围绕收集和随后的实验室分析现场数据从Knepp房地产野化项目，苏塞克斯，和阿滕伯勒储备，诺丁汉郡。最佳持续方案调查包括一系列快速措施（植被结构;植被形态和颜色;蝙蝠、鸟类、昆虫和青蛙的声学监测;淡水无脊椎动物和脊椎动物的eDNA调查;淡水无脊椎动物和陆地无脊椎动物的快速取样），以便与更详细的调查（蝙蝠、鸟类和昆虫横断面;植被调查;生境调查）进行比较，并检验可重复性。通过我的博士学位，我将在2024年和2025年期间对这些指标的子集进行重复调查，再加上土壤，植物，无脊椎动物和脊椎动物稳定同位素样本的额外收集和实验室分析（基于英国地质调查局，BGS），以及昆虫标本的鉴定（基于诺丁汉大学）。2024- 2025年的定制录音将添加到BCP在2023年制作的录音中。这些数据将使用一系列适当的统计建模方法进行分析，以实现目标并产生新的成果，如下所示：1.评估稳定同位素方法在确定生物多样性差异方面的价值，从而评估将其纳入生物多样性信用系统的潜力。2.比较2023-2025年的数据，以评估指标随时间的变化3。评估与恢复/野化阶段、管理做法和环境扰动有关的分类群和食物网的差异。4.使用鸟鸣的音频记录，根据专家物种鉴定进行验证，为我们的研究地点开发特定的算法，并为其他地方创建算法制定工作流程。测试全自动和半自动，其中记录的片段被标记为专家注意（以避免专家收听数千小时）。

Biodiversity is essential for ecosystem services and resilience to global change but is declining globally. Recent regulatory shifts requiring biodiversity reporting, offsetting and nature positive outcomes are creating a market for private finance of conservation, but broadly applicable mechanisms for this are lacking: something recognised by NERC through its recent 'Economics of Biodiversity' calls.The supervisory team, collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, has been awarded NERC funding to develop the "Biodiversity Credits Project (BCP)". Development of a biodiversity credit standard, allowing credits to be bought to ensure increases in biodiversity, will open up large-scale investment in biodiversity conservation. There is tremendous investor interest, with 4.2 million biodiversity credits already sold. Our BCP team is working to ensure it delivers real benefits (learning lessons from carbon credits). To ensure reliable assessment of biodiversity improvement, our project is developing widely applicable and rapid biodiversity survey techniques and testing them across a range of habitats. In my PhD project I will conduct additional data collection during 2024 and 2025 that builds on baseline BCP data being collected spring/summer 2023 at the Knepp Estate Rewilding Project, Sussex, and the Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottinghamshire. Specifically, aiming to:1. Extend the range of biodiversity metrics considered to include geochemical and stable isotope analyses2. Test how biodiversity metrics respond to changes over time 3. Test how key taxa respond to restoration management 4. Develop methodology for (semi-)automated recognition of bird species from audio recordings - a priority for our CASE partner, Operation Wallacea Research will be centred around collection and subsequent lab-analysis of field data from The Knepp Estate rewilding project, Sussex, and the Attenborough Reserve, Nottinghamshire. BCP surveys have included a series of rapid measures (vegetation structure; vegetation form and colour; acoustic monitoring for bats, birds, insects and frogs; eDNA surveys of freshwater invertebrates and vertebrates; rapid-sampling of freshwater invertebrates and terrestrial invertebrates), to be compared against more detailed surveys (bat, bird and insect transects; vegetation surveys; habitat surveys), and tested for repeatability. Through my PhD, I will conduct repeat surveys of a subset of these metrics during 2024 and 2025, plus additional collection and lab-analysis of soil, plant, invertebrate and vertebrate stable isotope samples (based at the British Geological Survey, BGS), and identification of insect specimens (based at the University of Nottingham). Bespoke audio recordings in 2024-25 will be added to those made in 2023 by BCP. These data will be analysed using a range of appropriate statistical modelling approaches to address aims and generate novel outcomes, as follows:1. Assess the value of stable isotope approaches for determining biodiversity differences and therefore potential for inclusion in a biodiversity credit system. 2. Compare 2023-2025 data to assess change in the metrics through time3. Assess differences in taxa and food webs in relation to restoration/rewilding stage, management practices and environmental perturbations. 4. Use audio recordings of bird song, validated against expert species identification, to develop specific algorithms for our study sites and a workflow for creating algorithms elsewhere. Testing both full automation and semi-automation, where fragments of recordings are flagged for expert attention (to avoid experts listening to thousands of hours).