Insect population responses to air pollution

该项目将利用监测1000多种陆地昆虫的长期数据集，对空气污染对昆虫种群的影响进行全国范围的分析，并对二氧化氮污染对昆虫的直接和间接影响进行实验分析。学生将与JNCC和自然资源威尔士公司合作，利用这些数据来探索量化空气污染的生态安全界限，以及如何将这些纳入25年环境计划的报告指标。我们的监督团队在支持学生发表高质量的研究论文(例如，PNAS和全球变化生物学)以及通过共同监督组织(JNCC、NRW和CEH)交付影响方面有着良好的记录。我们对空气污染的生态安全限度或如何扩大对个人的影响以确定人口和社区层面的影响的了解微不足道。这个项目将量化单个昆虫和它们的种群对二氧化氮(NO2)的反应，并探索这些影响的机械途径。学生将了解如何与一个跨学科团队和一系列利益相关者一起领导新颖的前沿科学来产生影响。具体地说，他们将获得化学生态学和污染物生态安全限度评估、实验设计、昆虫饲养、植物与昆虫相互作用、统计数据分析和空气污染模型使用方面的专业知识。

This project will conduct national scale analyses of air pollution impacts on insect populations usinglong-term data-sets monitoring over 1,000 terrestrial insect species, and experimental analyses ofdirect and indirect effects of nitrogen dioxide pollution on insects. The student will work with JNCCand Natural Resources Wales to use these data to explore quantifying ecological safe limits for airpollution, and how these can feed into reporting indicators for the 25 year environment plan. Oursupervisory team have an excellent track-record of supporting students in delivering high qualityresearch papers (e.g. in PNAS and Global Change Biology) and delivering impact throughco-supervisors' organisations (JNCC, NRW and CEH).There is negligible understanding of ecological safe limits of air pollution, or how impacts onindividuals scale up to determine population and community level impacts. This project will quantifyhow individual insects and their populations respond to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and exploremechanistic pathways for these impacts.The student will gain an understanding of how to lead novel 'frontier' science alongside aninterdisciplinary team and a range of stakeholders to generate impact. Specifically, they will gainexpertise in chemical ecology and evaluating ecological safe limits of pollutants, experimental design,insect rearing, plant-insect interactions, statistical data analysis, and use of air pollution models.