Quantifying the impact of woodland restoration on rodent communities and their pathogens

该项目将调查林地恢复如何影响啮齿动物群落及其病毒，结合实地考察，啮齿动物接触网络的高分辨率映射，以及病毒群落的下一代测序。将从现有的林地创建地点网络（例如，从WARREEN和TreE_PlaNat项目）中选择实地地点，以研究不同年龄的林地之间啮齿动物群落和感染的差异以及与景观中其他阔叶林的连接程度。这项研究的目的是提高我们对如何利用重新造林和林地创造来改善野生动物健康和降低人类患人畜共患病风险的理解。

This project will investigate how woodland restoration affects rodent communities and their viruses by combining fieldwork, high resolution mapping of rodent contact networks, and next generation sequencing of virus communities. Field sites will be chosen from an existing network of woodland creation sites (e.g. from the WrEN and TreE_PlaNat projects) to examine how rodent communities and infections differ between woodlands of different ages and degree of connectivity to other broadleaf forests in the landscape. The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of how reforestation and woodland creation can be leveraged to improve wildlife health and reduce risk of zoonotic disease in human populations.