CAREER: Effect of the matrix on extinction risk: a large scale experiment at Wog Wog

全球栖息地的丧失是生物多样性丧失的主要原因。这种丧失的一个关键后果是，许多生态系统的唯一残余是曾经连续的栖息地的小碎片，因此，全球生物多样性的命运取决于栖息地碎片中物种的生存。因此，了解栖息地碎片中物种的命运是必要的。在实验室之外，关于灭绝的实验研究极为罕见。因此，长期和大规模的栖息地破碎化实验提供了对灭绝的真实世界的理解，这是其他任何方式都无法揭示的。澳大利亚东南部的Wog Wog实验是在温带森林中进行的时间最长的大规模实验，自1987年以来支离破碎。当栖息地破碎时，哪些物种面临最大的灭绝风险，该实验提供了重要的见解。该基地由原始的原生桉树森林碎片组成，现在设置在管理的商业松树种植园内。这些商业松树计划被采伐，创造了一个前所未有的机会，在实验环境中发现，当碎片被重新碎片化时，灭绝风险是如何变化的，这在实践中经常发生。研究人员将通过改变碎片的环境和生态系统功能，确定碎片化如何影响碎片上物种的灭绝风险。许多大学生只上一门科学课，而这门课通常是生物学导论。Davies博士每年共同教授1400名入门生物学学生，因此有很好的机会激发和增加STEM的参与。她将通过围绕她在Wog Wog的研究来改变她的大型本科生物学课的教学：1)专注于既定的学习目标，围绕研究生在该领域拍摄的视频开发迷你案例研究，2)每年带一名本科生到该领域通过数字照片收集栖息地结构数据，全班将分析这些数据，并由PI使用这些数据来模拟环境变化。戴维斯博士假设，将现实世界的实时生物学嵌入课堂将提高参与度和学习收益。

Global habitat loss accounts for most biodiversity loss. A critical consequence of this loss is that the only remnants of many ecosystems are small fragments of once continuous habitat, and so the fate of biodiversity, globally, depends on the survival of species in fragments of habitat. Therefore, understanding the fate of species in habitat fragments is imperative. Experimental studies of extinction are extremely rare outside of the laboratory. Thus, long term and large scale habitat fragmentation experiments provide real world understanding of extinction that cannot be uncovered in any other way. The Wog Wog experiment in southeastern Australia is the longest running, large scale experiment in temperate forest, fragmented since 1987. The experiment has provided major insights about which kinds of species are at greatest risk of extinction when their habitat is fragmented. The site is composed of original native eucalypt forest fragments now set within managed commercial pine plantation. These commercial pines are scheduled to be harvested, creating an unprecedented opportunity to discover, in an experimental setting, how extinction risk changes when fragments are re-fragmented, something that occurs commonly in practice. The researchers will determine how re-fragmentation impacts the extinction risk of species on fragments through changes to the environment and the ecosystem function of fragments. Many university students will only take one science class, and often that class is Introductory Biology. Dr. Davies co-teaches 1400 Introductory Biology students every year and so has a great opportunity to inspire and increase STEM participation. She will transform the teaching of her large undergraduate biology class by focusing learning around her research at Wog Wog by: 1) focusing on established learning goals, developing mini case studies around video shot by graduate students in the field, and 2) bringing an undergraduate into the field every year to collect habitat structure data through digital photos that will be analysed by the whole class, and used by the PI to model changes to the environment. Dr. Davies hypothesizes that having real-world, real-time biology embedded in class will increase engagement and learning gains.