Promoting a nature-positive future: how to measure biodiversity to assess habitat restoration success

促进自然积极的未来：如何衡量生物多样性以评估栖息地恢复的成功

• 批准号: 2873555
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2873555
• 关键词: Promoting; nature; positive; future; how

Biodiversity is essential for ecosystem services and resilience to global change but is declining globally. Recent regulatory shifts requiring biodiversity reporting, offsetting and nature positive outcomes are creating a market for private finance of conservation, but broadly applicable mechanisms for this are lacking: something recognised by NERC through its recent 'Economics of Biodiversity' calls.The supervisory team, collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, has been awarded NERC funding to develop the "Biodiversity Credits Project (BCP)". Development of a biodiversity credit standard, allowing credits to be bought to ensure increases in biodiversity, will open up large-scale investment in biodiversity conservation. There is tremendous investor interest, with 4.2 million biodiversity credits already sold. Our BCP team is working to ensure it delivers real benefits (learning lessons from carbon credits). To ensure reliable assessment of biodiversity improvement, our project is developing widely applicable and rapid biodiversity survey techniques and testing them across a range of habitats. In my PhD project I will conduct additional data collection during 2024 and 2025 that builds on baseline BCP data being collected spring/summer 2023 at the Knepp Estate Rewilding Project, Sussex, and the Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottinghamshire. Specifically, aiming to:1. Extend the range of biodiversity metrics considered to include geochemical and stable isotope analyses2. Test how biodiversity metrics respond to changes over time 3. Test how key taxa respond to restoration management 4. Develop methodology for (semi-)automated recognition of bird species from audio recordings - a priority for our CASE partner, Operation Wallacea Research will be centred around collection and subsequent lab-analysis of field data from The Knepp Estate rewilding project, Sussex, and the Attenborough Reserve, Nottinghamshire. BCP surveys have included a series of rapid measures (vegetation structure; vegetation form and colour; acoustic monitoring for bats, birds, insects and frogs; eDNA surveys of freshwater invertebrates and vertebrates; rapid-sampling of freshwater invertebrates and terrestrial invertebrates), to be compared against more detailed surveys (bat, bird and insect transects; vegetation surveys; habitat surveys), and tested for repeatability. Through my PhD, I will conduct repeat surveys of a subset of these metrics during 2024 and 2025, plus additional collection and lab-analysis of soil, plant, invertebrate and vertebrate stable isotope samples (based at the British Geological Survey, BGS), and identification of insect specimens (based at the University of Nottingham). Bespoke audio recordings in 2024-25 will be added to those made in 2023 by BCP. These data will be analysed using a range of appropriate statistical modelling approaches to address aims and generate novel outcomes, as follows:1. Assess the value of stable isotope approaches for determining biodiversity differences and therefore potential for inclusion in a biodiversity credit system. 2. Compare 2023-2025 data to assess change in the metrics through time3. Assess differences in taxa and food webs in relation to restoration/rewilding stage, management practices and environmental perturbations. 4. Use audio recordings of bird song, validated against expert species identification, to develop specific algorithms for our study sites and a workflow for creating algorithms elsewhere. Testing both full automation and semi-automation, where fragments of recordings are flagged for expert attention (to avoid experts listening to thousands of hours).

生物多样性对于生态系统服务和应对全球变化的能力至关重要，但在全球范围内正在下降。最近的监管转变要求生物多样性报告、抵消和自然积极成果，正在为保护私人融资创造一个市场，但缺乏广泛适用的机制：NERC 通过其最近的“生物多样性经济学”呼吁认识到这一点。与广泛的利益相关者合作，已获得 NERC 资金来开发“生物多样性积分项目（BCP）”。制定生物多样性信用标准，允许购买信用以确保生物多样性的增加，将为生物多样性保护开辟大规模投资。投资者兴趣浓厚，已售出 420 万个生物多样性信用额度。我们的 BCP 团队正在努力确保其带来真正的效益（从碳信用额中吸取经验教训）。为了确保对生物多样性改善情况进行可靠的评估，我们的项目正在开发广泛适用的快速生物多样性调查技术，并在一系列栖息地中进行测试。在我的博士项目中，我将在 2024 年和 2025 年期间进行额外的数据收集，这些数据收集的基础是 2023 年春/夏在苏塞克斯克奈普庄园重建项目和诺丁汉郡阿滕伯勒自然保护区收集的基线 BCP 数据。具体来说，旨在： 1．扩大生物多样性指标的范围，纳入地球化学和稳定同位素分析2。测试生物多样性指标如何响应随时间的变化 3. 测试关键类群如何响应恢复管理 4. 开发从录音中（半）自动识别鸟类物种的方法 - 我们的 CASE 合作伙伴华莱士行动研究的优先事项将集中围绕苏塞克斯克奈普庄园野化项目和诺丁汉郡阿滕伯勒保护区的现场数据收集和随后的实验室分析。 BCP 调查包括一系列快速措施（植被结构；植被形态和颜色；蝙蝠、鸟类、昆虫和青蛙的声学监测；淡水无脊椎动物和脊椎动物的 eDNA 调查；淡水无脊椎动物和陆地无脊椎动物的快速采样），与更详细的调查（蝙蝠、鸟类和昆虫横断面；植被调查；栖息地调查）进行比较，并测试可重复性。通过攻读博士学位，我将在 2024 年和 2025 年期间对这些指标的子集进行重复调查，并对土壤、植物、无脊椎动物和脊椎动物稳定同位素样本进行额外收集和实验室分析（基于英国地质调查局 (BGS)），以及昆虫标本的鉴定（位于诺丁汉大学）。 2024-25 年的定制录音将添加到 BCP 2023 年制作的录音中。这些数据将使用一系列适当的统计建模方法进行分析，以实现目标并产生新的结果，如下：1。评估稳定同位素方法在确定生物多样性差异方面的价值，以及纳入生物多样性信用体系的潜力。 2. 比较 2023-2025 年数据以评估指标随时间的变化3。评估与恢复/野化阶段、管理实践和环境扰动相关的类群和食物网的差异。 4. 使用经过专家物种鉴定验证的鸟鸣录音，为我们的研究地点开发特定的算法，以及在其他地方创建算法的工作流程。测试全自动化和半自动化，其中录音片段被标记以供专家注意（以避免专家聆听数千小时）。