Does pollinator diversity moderate ecosystem function in agroforestry systems?

农林业，广义上被定义为将树木融入农业系统，是一种在欧洲获得巨大吸引力的方法，实施农林业目前是欧盟共同农业政策的一个选择。关于农林业如何提高昆虫生物多样性的证据越来越多;然而，对这些和其他新的可持续系统的评估传统上侧重于物种丰富度或丰度的生态措施，而不是对农民的实际利益。这个奖学金将显着推进我们的无脊椎动物多样性的增加是否有助于生态系统功能的理解，或者这些增加是否在功能上是多余的。为此，我们将采取新的方法，调查农林业对传粉者功能性状多样性的影响。在可耕地和牧区实施农林业是否改善了授粉者功能多样性、生态系统功能、作物产量和农场收入？2.农林业在何种程度上有助于减轻授粉不足和增强不同农业系统中授粉者的复原力、多样性和生态系统功能？现场/实验室工作。学生将采用实地和实验室方法相结合，调查农林复合系统如何影响昆虫群落的功能特征，并有助于耕地和牧区农林复合系统的生态系统功能（授粉）。学生将结合联合收割机从自己的实地研究产生的数据与监督团队持有的预先存在的多年数据集。这将使他们能够进行第一次纵向研究，以调查实施农林业对传粉者多样性和生态系统功能随时间变化的影响。我们的最新研究使用了最先进的传粉者模型（poll 4pop）来模拟英国各地的授粉服务，预测英格兰东部将出现严重的赤字。这表明迫切需要了解如何修改农业实践，以改善这些地区的生态系统功能，而不降低农场的盈利能力，这可能会强烈影响农民的吸收。学生将使用他们自己的和预先存在的现场数据来增强poll 4pop模型，以便它实际地结合农林业对传粉者社区的影响。他们将应用这种改进的模型来研究农林复合经营是否有助于减轻预测的授粉赤字，同时保持农场的盈利能力。

Agroforestry, broadly defined as the integration of trees into farming systems, is an approach gaining significant traction across Europe, and implementation of agroforestry is currently an option in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Evidence on how agroforestry can enhance insect biodiversity is growing; however, evaluations of these and other novel sustainable systems have traditionally focused on ecological measures of species richness or abundance rather than tangible benefits to farmers. This studentship will significantly advance our understanding of whether increases in invertebrate diversity contribute to ecosystem functioning or whether these increases are functionally redundant. To do this we will take the novel approach of investigating the effects of agroforestry on pollinator functional trait diversity.This studentship will address two key questions:1. Does implementation of agroforestry in arable and pastoral regions improve pollinator functional diversity, ecosystem functioning, crop yields and farm income?2. To what degree could agroforestry help to mitigate pollination deficit and enhance pollinator resilience, diversity, and ecosystem functioning in different agricultural systems?FIELD/LAB WORK. The student will employ a combination of field and laboratory approaches to investigate how agroforestry systems can influence the functional traits of insect communities and contribute to ecosystem functioning (pollination) in both arable and pastoral agroforestry systems. The student will combine data generated from their own field research with a pre-existing multi-year dataset held by the supervisory team. This will enable them to conduct the first longitudinal study to investigate the effects of implementing agroforestry on changes in pollinator diversity and ecosystem functioning over time.MODELLING. Our latest research used a state-of-the-art pollinator model (poll4pop) to simulate pollination services across Great Britain, predicting significant deficits in eastern England. This suggests an urgent need to understand how farming practices could be modified to improve ecosystem functioning in these areas without reducing farm profitability, which can strongly influence farmer uptake. The student will use their own and pre-existing field data to augment the poll4pop model so that it realistically incorporates the impacts of agroforestry on pollinator communities. They will apply this improved model to investigate whether agroforestry could help mitigate predicted pollination deficits whilst maintaining farm profitability.