Moths in the margins: developing and testing tools to determine the protection provided by agricultural field margins

位于英国兰开斯特生态中心的博士机会，加的夫大学授予学位该项目将解决现实世界中优化该领域农药影响缓解战略的有效性的挑战。它将把尖端的跨学科污染科学融入到实地保护行动中，开发一种方法学工具包，以衡量农药喷雾漂移对居住在农田栖息地的非目标鳞翅目昆虫的生物利用度、吸收和影响。这项工作至关重要，因为目前的农药许可程序没有测试足够数量的非目标物种。这导致低估了杀虫剂对野生种群(如鳞翅目)的影响，这对维持重要的生态系统至关重要。为了评估农药暴露的影响，我们需要在田间小空间尺度上充分测量生物真实暴露水平的方法，特别是允许我们i)测量农药喷雾漂移对非目标生物的影响，以及ii)评估农药影响缓解措施的有效性，如田间边缘，这些措施被用来减少到达农田内/周围生物的喷雾漂移量。该项目将在这些互补领域的专家的监督下，在实验生态毒理学、基因组学和保护生态学的界面上工作。该项目将设在牛津郡的英国CEH(英国生态与水文学中心)，但将提供在RSPB和卡迪夫大学延长工作时间的机会。

PhD opportunity based at the UK Centre for Ecology Lancaster with degree award from Cardiff UniversityThis project will address the real-world challenge of optimising the effectiveness of pesticide-impact mitigation strategies in the field. It will incorporate cutting edge interdisciplinary pollution science into on-the-ground conservation action, developing a methodological toolkit to measure the bioavailability, uptake and effects of pesticide spray drift on non-target Lepidoptera inhabiting farmland habitats.This work is vital because current pesticide licensing procedures do not test a sufficient number of non-target species. This results in an under-estimation of the impacts of pesticides on wild populations (e.g. Lepidoptera) critical for maintaining important ecosystems. To assess the impact of pesticide exposure, we need methods that adequately measure true exposure levels of organisms over small spatial scales in the field, specifically allowing us to i) measure the effects of pesticide spray drift on non-target organisms, and ii) assess the effectiveness of pesticide impact mitigation measures, like field margins, that are used to reduce the amount of spray drift that reaches organisms living in/around farmlands.The project will work at the interface of experimental ecotoxicology, genomics and conservation ecology under the supervision of experts in these complementary fields. The project will be based in UK CEH (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) in Oxfordshire, but will provide opportunities to spend extended time working at the RSPB and Cardiff University.