The risk of soil contaminants on above- and below-ground urban ecosystems

这一跨学科项目旨在了解城市生态系统中地上和地下人为活动造成的土壤污染带来的风险。这一点至关重要，因为城市生态系统的土壤受到重工业、运输和人类管理的高度污染(例如，杀虫剂和除草剂的使用率不受管制)，这些因素对城市土壤生态系统的结构和功能的影响尚不清楚。我们的监督团队在城市生态系统、植物-土壤-微生物相互作用以及环境中农药对野生动物的影响方面具有独特的专业知识。目前，关于重金属和化学污染物如何影响城市生态系统中的土壤微生物和真菌群落结构和功能，以及这如何影响地上和地下生态系统中的相关野生动物，我们知之甚少。这个项目将提供对这些过程的关键见解，为土壤污染物的环境风险评估提供一个新的框架。被任命参加这个项目的学生将发展一系列土壤、植物和微生物科学的技能，包括分析化学、代谢组学、同位素示踪和中基因组学。此外，学生还将进行实地考察，并与地方当局和公众合作，发展公民科学方面的相关技能。

This interdisciplinary project seeks to understand the risks posed by soil contamination byanthropogenic activities above- and below-ground in urban ecosystems. This is crucial as soils inurban ecosystems experience high levels of contamination from heavy industry, transport and humanmanagement (e.g. pesticides and herbicides at unregulated rates) and the impact of these on thestructure and function of urban soil ecosystems are unknown. Our supervisory team is uniquelyplaced to deliver this project with expertise in urban ecosystems, plant-soil-microbe interactions andthe impact of pesticides in the environment on wildlife.Currently, nothing is known about how heavy metal and chemical contaminants impact soil microbialand fungal community structure and function in urban ecosystems, and how this impacts on theassociated wildlife in above- and below-ground ecosystems. This project will provide key insights intothese processes producing a new framework for assessment of environmental risk of soilcontaminants.The student appointed to this project will develop a range of skills in soil, plant and microbialsciences, including analytical chemistry, metabolomics, isotope tracing and metagenomics. Inaddition, the student will undertake fieldwork and develop associated skills in citizen science,working with local authorities and the general public.