Ecosystem functions of tropical filter-feedersunder environmental change

贻贝、苔藓虫和海绵是固着滤食性动物，在温带淡水生境中发挥着重要的生态系统功能，如水清除、营养循环和促进底栖生物多样性;但在淡水中，它们的功能作用却知之甚少。与此同时，人类活动的压力，包括森林砍伐和土地使用的变化，已经导致热带滤食性群落经历了严重的组成变化。例如，在生物多样性热点婆罗洲，本地贻贝变得越来越稀少，而非本地入侵者现在是岛上最常见的贻贝。本项目旨在了解无柄滤食性群落的生态变化如何影响热带淡水生态系统的功能。这将通过实地调查、原位围隔实验和实验室实验相结合来实现。实地工作将在婆罗洲的沙捞越进行，与马来西亚沙捞越大学、马来西亚诺丁汉大学及其当地合作伙伴，包括马来西亚世界自然基金会合作。在班戈尔大学世界领先的分子生物学家和CASE合作伙伴自然科学家的指导下，尖端的DNA元条形码技术将被应用于补充传统方法，以采样和描述滤食性和相关的脊椎动物群落。从该项目中获得的知识将为制定政策以减轻对热带淡水生物多样性和功能的人为威胁提供证据基础。

Mussels, bryozoans and sponges are sessile filter-feeders that are known tofulfil important ecosystem functions in temperate freshwater habitats, such aswater clearance, nutrient cycling and promotion ofbenthic biodiversity;yet intropical freshwaters, their functional roles are poorly understood. At the same time, anthropogenic pressures, including deforestation and land-use change,havecaused tropical filter-feeding communities to undergo severecompositional changes.As an example,in the biodiversity hotspot Borneo, native musselshave become increasingly rare, whilst a non-native invaderis now the most common mussel on the island. This project aims to understand how anthropogenically induced changes in sessile filter-feeding communities affectecosystem functioning of tropical freshwaters.This will be achieved through a combination offield surveys, in situ-mesocosm experiments and laboratory-based experiments.Fieldwork will be conductedin Sarawak, Borneo, in collaboration with the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,the University of Nottingham Malaysiaand their local partners, including WWF Malaysia. Under the guidance ofworld-leading molecularecologistsat Bangor University and CASE partnerNatureMetrics, cutting edge (e)DNAmetabarcodingtechniques will be appliedto complement traditional methods to sample and describe filter-feeding and associatedinvertebratecommunities. Knowledge gained from the project will provide an evidence basefordeveloping policies to mitigate anthropogenic threats to tropical freshwater biodiversity and functioning.