The river restoration 'ecological toolbox': simultaneously examining biomonitoring indices to guide catchment management strategies

近几十年来，淡水生态系统生物多样性的显著减少促使河流恢复工作激增。然而，恢复通常只带来适度的生态效益。因此，迫切需要能够识别损害生态系统健康的关键压力并帮助确定恢复后生态恢复的可能性的工具。英国开发的大型无脊椎动物生物监测工具可以帮助解决这一迫切需求，因为它们可以描述和量化不同人为压力因素的生态影响——包括富营养化、水流状态改变和细沉积物压力。然而，目前很少有研究同时考察多种生物监测指标的响应，为河流的可持续恢复策略提供信息。该博士将通过开发和测试一个“生态工具箱”来解决这一研究缺口，该工具箱可以识别河流生态系统的主要压力源，以及在不同的恢复干预措施后促进生态恢复的可能性。博士将借鉴英国历史和当代河流恢复项目，量化大型无脊椎动物群落在不同空间尺度上对不同干预措施的反应。这将对生态机制和大型无脊椎动物群落对不同河流修复活动的反应有更深入的了解，并强调何时何地实施了有效措施。这些证据将用于进一步完善和改进生态工具箱及其预测可持续河流恢复干预措施的能力。

Significant reductions in the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems have prompted a surge in river restoration efforts in recent decades. However, restoration has often delivered modest ecological benefits. Therefore, tools that can identify the key pressure(s) compromising ecosystem health and help identify the likelihood of ecological recovery following restoration are urgently required. Macroinvertebrate biomonitoring tools developed in the UK could help address this pressing need as they characterise and quantify the ecological effects of different anthropogenic stressors - including eutrophication, flow regime alterations and fine sediment pressures. However, little research has examined the response of multiple biomonitoring indices simultaneously to inform sustainable river restoration strategies. This PhD will address this research gap by developing and testing an 'ecological toolbox' that identifies primary stressor(s) stressing river ecosystems and the likelihood of promoting ecological recovery after different restoration interventions. The PhD will draw on historic and contemporary river restoration projects across the UK to quantify macroinvertebrate communities responses to different interventions at different spatial scales. This will provide a greater causal understanding of the ecological mechanisms and macroinvertebrate community responses to different river restoration activities and highlight when and where effective measures have been implemented. This evidence will be used to further refine and improve the ecological toolbox and its ability to predict sustainable river restoration interventions.