Upscaling biodiversity - ecosystem functioning research using intertidal forests as a model system (BEF-SCALE)

人类活动已经将全球物种灭绝速度提高了1000倍，并将另外100万个物种推向灭绝。随着气候变化推动物种重新分布，以及过度捕捞和栖息地碎片化等压力在许多地区加剧，生物多样性在更局部的范围内也在迅速变化。了解生物多样性如何影响生态系统功能，如碳捕获和渔业生产力，是一个直接关系到实现联合国可持续发展目标的关键挑战，也是英国利用生物多样性实现可持续经济增长和使用基于自然的解决方案帮助在2050年实现净零排放的政策当务之急。自20世纪90年代中期以来，数百项实验测试了生物多样性的变化如何影响生态系统的功能和服务，许多研究表明，只要保留表现最好的单一物种，生物多样性的丧失就不会减少功能。然而，这些研究侧重于小生境单元中物种之间的局部规模的相互作用，如草原地块、田间围栏或水族箱；因此，我们缺乏考虑与公众、生态系统管理者和政策制定者最相关的较大景观、区域甚至国家尺度上的BEF关系的研究。生态学理论表明，由于更大的环境变化，随着规模的增加，生物多样性对生态系统服务变得更加重要，但目前无法在真实的生态系统中进行评估，因为我们缺乏跨尺度和环境梯度的BEF研究。在这个项目中，我们的目标是通过使用英国的潮间带森林作为模型系统来弥合实验和相关更大规模之间的差距。这些高生产力和高价值的生态系统广泛分布在英吉利群岛多样而复杂的海岸线周围，由一系列可管理的海藻物种组成，这些海藻物种可以很容易地跨越多种不同的环境梯度进行操纵。为了实现我们的总体目标，我们将把多种环境因素纳入通过三个相互关联的工作包提供的实验、观察和模型中，这些工作包共同为BEF提供了一个通用的方法和比例关系。我们的第一个工作包使用100公里长的南威尔士海岸线--其中包括海浪暴露和浑浊的梯度--作为可访问的模板，以实验测试潮间带森林生物多样性对从小块到整个海岸线的生态系统功能的因果影响。我们的第二套方案将GB周围潮间带森林的标准化观测网络与卫星遥感和统计建模相结合，以测试BEF关系如何在自然组合的社区中扩大--从1米到1000公里。第三个也是最后一个工作包使用新的实验和观测数据来为动态模型提供信息，使我们能够测试物种特征(如扩散和环境容忍度)如何与环境变异性相互作用，以确定跨尺度的BEF关系。这里的一项关键创新是明确地将空间环境变异性与多种环境因素整合在一起，并在经验上得到了信息。它们将被概括为代表从森林到农业景观再到珊瑚礁的一系列不同生态系统中环境的变化。我们项目Aim的推进将修正对生态系统中多样性作用的认识，并展示一种提升生物多样性-生态系统功能关系的普遍方法。我们预计，这将有助于预测生物多样性的变化将如何影响大规模、相关规模的生态系统功能和服务，包括潮间带森林和潮间带森林，以及从自然资本模型到大型生态系统恢复项目设计的一系列应用。

Human activities have already raised global species extinction rates a thousand-fold and have pushed an additional million species towards extinction. Biodiversity is also rapidly changing on more local scales as climate change drives the redistribution of species, and pressures such as overharvesting and habitat fragmentation intensify in many areas. Understanding how biodiversity influences ecosystem functions, such as carbon capture and fisheries productivity, is a crucial challenge directly relevant to meeting the UN sustainable development goals, and UK policy imperatives of harnessing biodiversity to achieve sustainable economic growth and using nature-based solutions to help meet 'net-zero' emissions by 2050.Since the mid- 1990s, several hundred experiments have tested how changes in biodiversity influence ecosystem functions and services, with many studies indicating that biodiversity loss does not reduce functioning as long as the single best-performing species is retained. However, these studies have focused on local-scale interactions between species in small habitat units such as grassland plots, field enclosures, or aquarium tanks; we therefore lack studies that consider BEF relationships on the larger landscape-, regional- or even national- scales most relevant to the public, ecosystem managers, and policy makers. Ecological theory suggests that biodiversity is more important for ecosystem services as scale increases due to greater environmental variation, but it cannot currently be evaluated in real ecosystems because we lack BEF studies across scales and environmental gradients. In this project we aim to bridge the gap between experiments and relevant larger scales by using Great Britain's intertidal forests as a model system. These highly productive and valuable ecosystems occur extensively around the GB's varied and complex coastlines and are formed by a manageable suite of seaweed species which can be easily manipulated across multiple distinct environmental gradients. To meet our overall aim, we will incorporate multiple environmental factors into experiments, observations and models delivered across three inter-linked work packages which together provide a generalised approach and scaling relationships for BEF. Our first work package uses a 100km stretch of the south Wales coastline - which incorporates gradients in wave exposure and turbidity - as an accessible template to experimentally test the causal effect of intertidal forest biodiversity on ecosystem functioning from small patches to the whole coastline. Our second package combines a network of standardised observations in intertidal forests around GB, with satellite remote sensing and statistical modelling, to test how BEF relationships scale-up -- from 1 m to 1000km scales -- in naturally assembled communities. The third and final work package uses the new experimental and observational data to inform dynamic models, allowing us to test how species traits such as dispersal and environmental tolerances interacts with environmental variability to determine BEF relationships across scales. A key innovation here is the explicit - and empirically informed - integration of spatial environmental variability in multiple environmental factors. These will be generalised to represent how the environment varies in a range of different ecosystems from forests, to agricultural landscapes, and to coral reefs. The advancement of our project aim will deliver a revised appreciation of the role of diversity in ecosystems and demonstrate a generalizable approach for upscaling biodiversity - ecosystem functioning relationships. We anticipate that this will feed into predictions for how biodiversity changes will influence ecosystem functioning and services on large, relevant- scales, in intertidal forests and beyond, with a range of applications from natural capital models, to the design of large-scale ecosystem restoration projects.