How will greening the desert affect bats and the ecosystem services they provide?

沙漠绿化将如何影响蝙蝠及其提供的生态系统服务？

基本信息

批准号：
1941789
负责人：
金额：
--
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Studentship
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2017 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1941789
关键词：
How will greening desert affect

项目摘要

Understanding how human-mediated land cover changes affect species and the ecosystem services they provide is a major challenge for biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene. Irrigation and water transportation techniques have enabled the spread of large human settlements and commercial agriculture into arid environments, resulting in the 'greening' of the desert. This process has provided alternative foraging habitats, prey and water sources for desert wildlife and increased landscape connectivity. However, it also facilitated colonisation by generalist species not adapted to xeric environments. These environmental changes likely left a signature on desert wildlife, affecting both their nutritional ecology and movement behaviour. Responses to anthropogenic changes can be inferred through studying the organism's gut microbiota due to its rapid adaptive responses to environmental variation[1]. Landscape connectivity affects movement and consequently genetic structure; hence, through studying spatial patterns of genetic variation we can understand how the greening process affected species movement patterns[2]. Insectivorous bats are major contributors to desert mammalian biodiversity that provide important ecosystems services through the suppression of insect pest populations and transportation of nutrients[3]. This project will test how anthropogenic greening of the desert has affected the movement patterns and microbiota of desert bats and the ecosystem services they provide.

了解人类介导的土地覆盖变化如何影响物种和它们提供的生态系统服务是人类世保护的生物多样性保护的主要挑战。灌溉和水运输技术使大型人类定居点和商业农业传播到干旱的环境中，从而导致沙漠的“绿化”。这个过程为沙漠野生动植物提供了替代觅食的栖息地，猎物和水源，并增加了景观连接。但是，这也促进了不适合Xeric环境的通才物种的殖民化。这些环境变化很可能给沙漠野生动植物带来了签名，影响了其营养生态和运动行为。可以通过研究生物体的肠道菌群对人为变化的反应，因为它对环境变异的快速反应[1]。景观连通性影响运动，因此影响遗传结构；因此，通过研究遗传变异的空间模式，我们可以理解绿色过程如何影响物种运动模式[2]。昆虫蝙蝠是沙漠哺乳动物生物多样性的主要因素，通过抑制害虫种群和养分的运输来提供重要的生态系统服务[3]。该项目将测试沙漠的人为绿色如何影响沙漠蝙蝠的运动模式和微生物群及其提供的生态系统服务。