Ecosystem services associated with aquatic plants in urban landscapes

本项目将重点研究水生植物群落与城市环境之间的关系。具体而言，本项目将解决两个关键问题。1）水生植物分布和功能生态的城市环境的影响城市水生植物分布是由扩散和栖息地水平的过程相结合：一个物种可以到达一个新的网站，它可以建立一旦到达？城市水生植物分布的生态位/中性过程的理论将使用英国城市池塘植物群落的广泛数据集进行测试。具体的假设将进行测试，包括：（一）城市网站的生物同质化，（二）更强的空间结构的社区在城市，（三）和驼背之间的关系城市化和植物物种丰富度在陆地生态系统中观察到的。这些分析可以通过将功能植物性状，调查功能多样性和冗余城市水体内扩展。2)水生植物在提供城市生态系统服务中的机制作用城市水生植物通过增强生物多样性、对城市径流进行植物修复和改善当地的美学，以及通过它们作为入侵物种（例如新西兰矮杂草）或有害物种（例如有毒藻华）的作用，做出积极贡献。

This project will focus on the relationships between aquatic plant communities and the urban environment. Specifically, this project will address two key topics.1) Influence of urban environment of aquatic plant distribution and functional ecologyUrban aquatic plant distributions are determined by a combination of dispersal and habitat-level processes: can a species reach a new site, and can it establish once arrived? Theories about the niche/neutral processes underlying urban aquatic plant distributions will be tested using an extensive dataset of UK urban pond plant communities. Specific hypotheses will be tested, including: (i) biotic homogenisation of urban sites, (ii) stronger spatial structuring of communities in cities, (iii) and the hump-backed relationship between urbanisation and plant species richness observed in terrestrial ecosystems. These analyses can be expanded by incorporating functional plant traits to investigate functional diversity and redundancy within urban waterbodies. 2) Mechanistic role of aquatic plants in the delivery of urban ecosystem (dis)servicesUrban aquatic plants contribute both positively, through the enhancement of biodiversity, the phytoremediation of urban run-off, and the improvement of local aesthetics, as well as negatively, through their role as invasive species (e.g. New Zealand pigmy weed) or nuisance species (e.g. toxic algal blooms).