Ants as ecosystem engineers: using ants to promote biodiversity

我们正在寻找一个充满热情和雄心壮志的学生来开发一个激动人心的项目，利用实地实验来量化草地蚂蚁和管理制度之间的关系，以及这些共同影响生物多样性和土壤功能的方式。理想的候选人将喜欢与学者和利益相关者互动，并希望将他们的科学培训应用到一个重要的应用问题上。蚂蚁充当有效的地球工程师，增加栖息地的异质性并构建利基。黄草甸蚂蚁在历史上是牧场上常见的蚂蚁，它促进了生物多样性，例如增加了花卉物种的丰富度。许多现代农业做法减少或消除了草甸蚂蚁的数量。贝尔顿庄园是国家信托基金的财产，包括650公顷历史悠久的林场公园，是英国的优先栖息地，在一些地区，草甸蚂蚁的密度异常高，但也有其他地区完全没有草甸蚂蚁。以前对该场地的管理导致了一些过度放牧和土壤压实。该地点正在经历一段时间的管理变革，转向一种更有利于生物多样性的混合和轻放方法。目标-使用受控操纵来评估管理制度对蚂蚁种群的影响-使用实验移植来评估土壤居民作为压实土壤恢复介质的作用-使用行为和遗传数据来确定某些地点蚂蚁种群密度异常高的生态过程。项目的好处学生将接受全面的研究生培训，由具有强大研究背景和研究生指导经验的多学科导师团队支持。学生将获得生态研究技能，包括：经验领域技术；尖端实验室设备技术；空间分析方法。这项研究将提供有关蚂蚁对土壤恢复和生态系统功能的影响以及草原管理如何影响这些过程的新数据：它将使学术生态/进化社区、政策制定者和土地管理者受益。

We are looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious student to develop an exciting project using fieldexperiments to quantify the relationship between meadow ants and management regimes, and howthese together affect biodiversity and soil function. The ideal candidate will enjoy interacting with bothacademics and stakeholders and will want to apply their scientific training to an important appliedquestion.Ants act as effective geoengineers, increasing habitat heterogeneity and constructing niches. Yellowmeadow ants, Lasius flavus, were historically common on pastures and promote biodiversity, forexample increasing floral species richness. Many modern farming practices reduce or eliminate theirpopulations.Belton House, a National Trust property including 650 hectares of historic wood pasture parkland, a UKpriority habitat, has areas hosting unusually high densities of meadow ants, but also other areas wherethey are entirely absent. Previous management of the site has resulted in some over-grazing and soilcompaction. The site is undergoing a period of management change, to a more biodiversity-friendlyapproach of mixed and lighter grazing.Objectives- To assess the impact of management regimes on ant populations, using controlled manipulations- To assess the role of soil-dwelling ants as agents of rehabilitation of compacted soil usingexperimental transplantation- To identify the ecological processes mediating the unusually high ant population densities at certainsites, using behavioural and genetic dataProject benefitsThe student will receive thorough postgraduate training supported by a multidisciplinary team ofsupervisors with strong research backgrounds and experience in postgraduate supervision. The studentwill gain ecological research skills including: empirical field techniques; cutting-edge laboratoryequipment techniques; spatial analysis methods. This study will provide novel data on the impact ofants on soil rehabilitation and ecosystem function, and on how grassland management impacts theseprocesses: it will benefit the academic ecology/evolution communities, policy-makers and landmanagers.