Defining nutrient sources and fluxes driving lowland drinking water reservoir ecosystem responses

在整个发达世界，地表淡水的营养物富集是淡水生态系统及其提供的服务的最大压力源。然而，迄今为止，制定缓解措施以解决富营养化水域灭绝和损害问题的努力受到了阻碍，原因是对在集水区产生这些压力的营养形式的范围了解不完全。具体而言，侧重于控制流入这些水域的单一（无机）营养形式的措施没有考虑到生物群获取、利用和响应有机和颗粒营养成分的能力，而一系列新出现的有机污染物会进一步损害生态系统健康。为了制定有效的政策和管理办法来处理这些问题，需要采取综合办法。最近在NERC资助的一套研究项目中开发的新技术，由这里提出的监督小组领导，现在允许一种更复杂的方法来描述从集水区输送到淡水生态系统的所有营养成分的性质、来源和生态意义。该奖学金将为学生提供机会，接受来自世界领先专家的培训，学习这些前沿技术，包括开发水的分层监测和分析方法，部署用于淡水监测的新型遥测传感器技术，用于贡献源和水体中有机物化学的化合物特异性测定的新型高分辨率组学方法。以及基于生物分析的方法，以确定对表层淡水浮游植物、浮游生物和大型植物群落产生影响的压力源的范围。学生将在当地的供水水库Chew Valley Lake （SPA， SSSI）工作，该水库支持由CASE合作伙伴（www.bristolwaterfisheries.co.uk/lakes/chew-valley-lake/）管理的具有国际重要性的野禽种群和具有区域重要性的鳟鱼渔业，但显示出高度退化的大型植物和浮游植物生态。学生将使用这些新技术来确定流域的主要贡献源和损害湖泊生态系统健康的主要污染物。与CASE合作伙伴Bristol Water（与自然英格兰、环境署和集水区敏感农业一起领导当地Mendip湖泊合作伙伴关系）以及Bristol Avon集水区合作伙伴关系（www.wessexwater.co.uk/bristolavon/）密切合作，学生的研究成果将用于全面了解导致湖泊灭绝和损害的压力。并为制定有针对性的流域管理战略提供支持，以改善Chew Valley Lake及其流域的生态系统健康、自然资本和生态系统服务弹性，并在流域范围内为人类和自然提供更广泛的利益。

Nutrient enrichment of surface freshwaters is the single largest stressor on freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide, throughout the developed world. However, efforts to develop mitigation measures to tackle extinction and impairment for eutrophicated waters have been hampered, to date, by an incomplete understanding of the range of nutrient forms generating these stresses in catchments. Specifically, measures focusing on controlling the flux of single (inorganic) nutrient forms to these waters fail to consider the capacity of the biota to access, utilise, and respond to organic and particulate nutrient fractions, with a range of emerging organic contaminants generating further damage to ecosystem health. In order to develop effective policy and management to tackle these problems, a holistic approach is required. Novel techniques recently developed in a suite of NERC funded research programmes led by the supervisory team proposed here now allow a more sophisticated approach to characterising the nature, origins and ecological significance of all nutrient fractions delivered to freshwater ecosystems from their catchments. This studentship will provide the student with the opportunity to receive training in these cutting-edge techniques from world-leading experts in the development of hierarchical monitoring and analysis approaches for waters, the deployment of novel telemetered sensor technologies for freshwater monitoring, novel high resolution omics methods for compound specific determination of organic matter chemistry in contributing sources and the water body, and in bioassay-based approaches to determine the range of stressors generating impacts in the phytoplankton, epilithic and macrophyte communities of surface freshwaters. The student will work on a local water supply reservoir, Chew Valley Lake (SPA, SSSI) that supports an internationally important wildfowl population and regionally important trout fishery managed by the CASE Partner (www.bristolwaterfisheries.co.uk/lakes/chew-valley-lake/), but exhibits a highly degraded macrophyte and phytoplankton ecology. The student will use these novel techniques to pinpoint the key contributing sources in the catchment and key contaminants impairing lake ecosystem health. Working closely with the CASE Partner, Bristol Water (who lead the local Mendip Lakes Partnership with Natural England, Environment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming) and also with the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership (www.wessexwater.co.uk/bristolavon/), the outcomes from the studentship will be used to develop a holistic understanding of the pressures driving extinction and impairment in the lake, and feed into the development of a targeted catchment management strategy to improve the ecosystem health, natural capital and ecosystem service resilience in Chew Valley Lake and its catchment, and provide wider benefits for people and nature at a catchment scale.