A novel Free-Air Diesel and Ozone Enrichment (FADOE) research platform

在全球范围内，人们越来越担心空气污染对人类健康和环境的潜在风险。虽然许多人认为空气污染主要是城市问题，但农村地区也经常暴露在一系列空气污染物中。越来越多的证据表明，臭氧和氮氧化物(NOx)等常见空气污染物可能会与植物和昆虫用于交流的气味化合物发生反应并在化学上改变，从而间接损害植物和昆虫的健康。虽然人类使用的主要感觉是视觉，但许多昆虫和植物使用气味来感知环境并与其相互作用。这些气味可能是许多日常工作中至关重要的一部分，这些工作对它们的生存至关重要。昆虫通常使用气味来定位食物(例如花朵的气味)或寻找配偶(即信息素)，植物也会检测到附近植物的气味并对其做出反应(例如，如果它们检测到昆虫从邻近植物释放的气味，它们可以增加叶片中防御化学物质的产生)。许多昆虫提供重要的生态系统服务，有益于社会，例如粮食作物的授粉，因此昆虫用来执行此类任务的气味线索的中断可能会导致严重的负面后果。越来越多的研究表明，空气污染物如何通过化学手段改变植物和昆虫使用的不同气味线索，例如我们之前的研究表明，柴油废气与组成花香的独特化学混合物发生反应并改变，使蜜蜂无法识别花香。然而，这些效应的大部分证据来自实验室研究和模拟模型，其结果并不总是准确地转化为自然界的效应。现场实验很少见，因为在露天条件下，以受控的方式升高污染物实际上是非常具有挑战性的。最近，我们设计了一个新的临时原型设备，成功地使我们能够研究空气污染如何影响野外重要的生态过程。我们最初未发表的结果表明，这些影响可能比实验室研究和模拟模型预测的要大得多。NOx和臭氧水平的适度增加导致授粉者访花的次数减少了90%，这表明对昆虫授粉的负面影响出人意料地严重。这一结果证实了迫切需要一个专门的长期田间研究平台来调查：1)哪些生态过程和相互作用受到影响，以及潜在的后果；2)这种变化的机制是什么；3)是否可以采取干预措施来缓解这些变化？因此，该项目将资助在雷丁大学的桑宁农场建造一个全球独一无二的最先进的定制研究设施，为全球各地的学者提供一个研究平台，在这个科学领域进行尖端研究。这个新的自由空气柴油和臭氧浓缩研究平台将由一系列12个独立可控的8米直径环组成。在每个环内，将有可能分别和组合准确地提升和保持臭氧和柴油排放到生态现实的值。研究人员将能够改变这些环内的植物群落/昆虫群落，使他们能够研究这些空气污染物对一系列气味介导的相互作用的生态影响，并利用先进的基于现场的化学技术，研究任何变化背后的化学机制。该设施将为研究人员提供工具，以解决该领域的关键问题，并改变我们对空气污染如何影响生物多样性和我们赖以可持续粮食生产的关键昆虫中介生态系统服务的知识。

Globally, there is increasing concern about the potential risks of air pollution to human health and the environment. Whilst many people consider air pollution predominantly an urban issue, rural areas are also regularly exposed to a range of air pollutants. Growing evidence suggests that common air pollutants such as ozone and nitrogen oxides (NOx) may indirectly impair the fitness of plants and insects, by reacting with and chemically altering the odour compounds that plants and insects use for communication. Whilst the dominant sense used by humans is vision, many insects and plants use odours to perceive and interact with their environment. These odours can be a vital part of many everyday tasks that are critical to their survival. Insects commonly use odours to locate food (e.g. a flower's scent) or find a mate (i.e. pheromones), and plants also detect and respond to odours from other nearby plants (e.g. they can increase production of defence chemicals in their leaves if they detect odours released from neighbouring plants being fed upon by insects). Many insects provide vital ecosystem services which benefit society, e.g. the pollination of food crops, and therefore disruption of the odour cues that insects use to carry out such tasks could result in significant negative consequences.Increasing numbers of studies are demonstrating how air pollutants can chemically alter different odour cues used by plants and insects, e.g. our previous research showed that diesel exhaust reacts with and alters the unique blend of chemicals that make up a flower's scent, making it no longer recognizable to honey bees. However, most of the evidence for these effects is from laboratory studies and simulation models, the outcomes of which do not always translate accurately to effects in nature. Field-based experiments are rare because in open air conditions it is practically very challenging to elevate pollutants in a controlled manner. Recently, we designed a novel temporary prototype facility which successfully allowed us to investigate how air pollution can impact upon important ecological processes in the field. Our initial unpublished results indicate that these impacts may be significantly greater than predicted by laboratory studies and simulation models. Moderate increases in NOx and ozone levels resulted in a 90% reduction in flower visitation by pollinators, indicating an unexpectedly severe negative impact upon insect-provided pollination.This result substantiates the urgent need for a dedicated permanent field-based research platform to investigate: 1) which ecological process and interactions are affected and what are the potential consequences; 2) what are the mechanisms of such changes; 3) are there interventions that can be put in place to mitigate these changes?Therefore, this project will fund the construction of a globally unique state-of-the-art bespoke research facility at the University of Reading's Sonning Farm to provide a research platform for academics across the globe to conduct cutting edge research in this scientific field. This new, Free-Air Diesel and Ozone Enrichment research platform, will consist of a series of 12 independently controllable 8-meter diameter rings. Within each ring it will be possible to accurately elevate and maintain ozone and diesel exhaust, both separately and in combination, to ecologically realistic values. Researchers will be able to alter the plant/insect communities within these rings to permit them to study the ecological impacts of these air pollutants on a range of odour-mediated interactions and, using advanced field-based chemical techniques, study the chemical mechanisms behind any changes. The facility will provide researchers with the tools to address key questions in the field and make a step change in our knowledge of how air pollution impacts upon biodiversity and the key insect-mediated ecosystem services upon which we rely for sustainable food production.