Can fruit production and viticulture be enhanced by ecosystem services from wild mammals?

生物害虫防治是集约化农业可持续解决方案的关键。蜘蛛在适当的情况下可以有效地控制害虫，但它们的效果通常是有限的，因为大多数物种是多面手捕食者，在高密度的情况下会进行内部捕食，包括同类相食。我们假设，群居蜘蛛特别适合害虫控制，因为它们对同种蜘蛛的耐受性异常高，避免同类相食，从而允许高捕食者密度。这种活着的蜘蛛群，citricola，出现在世界各地的热带和亚热带地区，以及欧洲南部。在西班牙南部，它与种植在农田周围的仙人掌联系在一起。它在仙人掌上覆盖着浓密的网状物，作为其他掠食性和偷窃寄生蜘蛛（Argyrodes Argyrodes; Holocnemus pluchei）的基质。这种巨大的蛛网可以拦截并帮助控制各种各样的飞虫，比如已经成为世界范围内番茄作物毁灭性害虫的绝对飞蛾。然而，蜘蛛网也可能捕获重要的作物传粉媒介。citricola的全球分布及其群体生活倾向使其成为害虫综合治理的理想候选者。然而，必须了解其捕食者和寄生虫群落内的营养和行为相互作用，以评估其提供害虫控制的能力，并阐明提供这种生态系统服务的最佳群落物种组成。该项目旨在：1)通过一系列实验室控制实验，确定捕食者和寄生虫之间的行为相互作用，同时评估蜘蛛群落对绝对小蠹的控制效果。2)通过野外环境中操纵物种组成和利用元条形码分析蜘蛛肠道内容物（eDNA），探索捕食者、寄生虫、害虫和传粉者之间的营养相互作用。3)构建最佳蜘蛛群群落结构管理建议，为害虫防治提供依据。候选人必须对行为生态学有浓厚的兴趣。对实验设计有很好的理解，有实地工作的经验，熟悉R软件和元条形码是可取的，但不是必需的。为了评估对水果质量和产量的影响，博士将评估增加野生动物种群和促进大规模提供生态系统服务的干预措施。

Biological pest control is key to sustainable solutions for intensive agriculture.Spiders can provide effective pest control in the right circumstances, but their effectiveness is usually limited because most species are generalist predators that will engage in intra-guild predation, including cannibalism, when present at high densities.We hypothesise that group living spiders are uniquely suited for pest control because of their unusually high tolerance of conspecifics and avoidance of cannibalism, allowing high predator densities.The group living spider, Cyrtophora citricola, occurs in tropical and subtropical areas around the world, as well as southern parts of Europe. In southern Spain it associates with cacti that surround agricultural fields. It covers the cacti in dense webbing that functions as a substrate for other predatory and klepto-parasitic spiders (Argyrodes argyrodes; Holocnemus pluchei). The large webbing intercepts, and may help to control, a variety of flying insects such as the moth Tuta absoluta that has become a devastating pest of tomato crops worldwide. However, webs may also capture important crop pollinators.The global occurrence of C. citricola and its group living tendencies makes it an ideal candidate for use in integrated pest management. However, the trophic and behavioural interactions within its community of predators and parasites must be understood to assess its ability to provide pest control, and to elucidate the optimal species composition within colonies for providing this ecosystem service.The project aims to:1) Determine the behavioural interactions amongst predators and parasites in a series of controlled lab-based experiments, while evaluating the effectiveness of spider communities to control T. absoluta.2) Explore the trophic interactions amongst predators, parasites, pests and pollinators by manipulating species compositions in field settings and using meta-barcoding to analyse spider gut content (eDNA).3) Construct advice for management of optimal spider-group community structure for providing pest control.Candidates must have a strong interest in behavioural ecology. A good understanding of experimental design, experience conducting field work, and familiarity with the software R and with meta-barcoding are desirable, but not essential.o assess impacts on fruit quality and yield, the PhD will evaluate interventions to enhance wildlife populations and facilitate the delivery of ecosystem services at scale.