Small carnivore ecology and the impact of heavy metals in the environment

学生将处于生态毒理学、野生动植物保护和农业的交叉点，并将发展与这些主题相关的技能，并可转移到其他学科。人类活动，特别是农业发展造成的生境碎片化和退化威胁着全球生物多样性。一个这样的例子是沙巴州(马来西亚婆罗洲)基纳巴坦甘河下游的泛滥平原，那里的热带雨林已经被油棕榈种植园取代。下基纳巴坦甘野生动物保护区(LKWS)由河流两侧的几个森林碎片组成，它们相互连接，形成了一条沿河野生动物活动的走廊。特别令人感兴趣的是，在LKWS周围的种植园中存在顶级捕食者，他们以与油棕榈树相关的小型哺乳动物种群为食。此前，我们已经在果子狸的毛发和栖息在油棕榈园的巨蜥的脂肪组织中发现了多种重金属的增加，然而，我们还不知道这些观察到的结果是否延伸到其他小型食肉动物，以及它们对物种种群动态的影响。该项目将侧重于研究栖息在LKWS的小型食肉动物，这些动物由于其在食物链中的位置以及获得携带这些金属的猎物而暴露于金属生物积累。为了达到这一目的，学生将一方面确定在LKWS周围的农业环境中是否存在重金属，并使用从被困在种植园中的小型食肉动物身上收集的样本，评估这些动物身上是否存在这些重金属(例如在它们的毛发中)。另一方面，学生将研究具有遗传标记(例如ddRad-seq)的小型食肉动物，以表征它们的遗传多样性和种群结构，然后联合评估特定的个体或种群是否比其他个体或种群更容易受到污染。从这项工作中获得的信息将有助于沙巴州物种管理计划的制定和更新，并将突出金属生物积累对小型食肉动物的作用。导师具有互补和独特的技能组合，将在项目的不同部分最大限度地为学生提供支持。监督小组成员包括：Pablo Orozco-terWengel博士(加的夫大学主监事)，种群遗传学家和保护遗传学家，在热带分子生态学方面拥有丰富经验；Claus Svensen博士(CEH联席监管人，CEH)，农药和生物利用度专家；Benoit Goossens教授(加的夫大学联席监管人)，热带地区有丰富经验的自然资源保护者，并将在沙巴州的加的夫Danau Girang野外中心担任主任；Jason Weks教授(联合自然保护委员会联席监管人)，在监测污染和化学品对野生动物的影响方面拥有丰富经验。

The student will be at the intersection between ecotoxicology, wildlife, conservation and agriculture and will develop skills relevant to those topics and transferrable to other disciplines. Habitat fragmentation and degradation by human activities, particularly agricultural development, threatens global biodiversity. An example of such is the floodplain of the Lower Kinabatangan river in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) where tropical rainforests have been replaced with oil palm plantations. The Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS) consists of several forest fragments on either side of the river which are connected to each other forming a corridor for wildlife movement along the river. Of particular interest is the presence of top predators in the plantations surrounding the LKWS and who forage on the small mammal populations associated with the oil palms. Previously we have identified an increase of multiple heavy metals on the hair of Malay civets and the fat tissue of monitor lizards inhabiting oil palm plantations, however, we don't know yet whether these observations extend to other small carnivores and what is their impact on the species' population dynamics. This project will focus on studying small carnivores inhabiting the LKWS and who are exposed to metal bioaccumulation due to their position in the food chain and the access to prey that carries such metals. To address this aim, the student will on one hand identify the presence of heavy metals in the agricultural setting around LKWS, and using samples collected form small carnivores trapped in the plantations, assess the presence of such heavy metals on the animals (e.g. in their hair). On the other hand, the student will study the small carnivores with genetic markers (e.g. ddRad-seq) to characterise their genetic diversity and population structure, and then jointly assess if particular individuals or populations are more susceptible to contamination than others. The information derived from this work will contribute to the development and update of species management plans in Sabah, and will highlight the role of metal bioaccumulation on small carnivores. The supervisors have a complementary and unique combination of skills that will maximise the support provided to the student during the various parts of the project. The supervisory team is made of Dr. Pablo Orozco-terWengel (main supervisor, Cardiff University), a population geneticist and conservation geneticist with ample experience in tropical molecular ecology, Dr. Claus Svendsen (co-supervisor, CEH) who is an expert on pesticides and bioavailability, Prof. Benoit Goossens (co-supervisor, Cardiff University) a conservationist with ample experience in the tropics and director of Cardiff's Danau Girang Field Centre in Sabah where the work will take place, and Prof. Jason Weeks (co-supervisor, Joint Nature Conservation Committee) who has a wealth of experience on monitoring the impact of pollution and chemicals on wildlife.