Unravelling how urbanization influences soil invertebrate community assembly, food web interactions and associated ecosystem functions

揭示城市化如何影响土壤无脊椎动物群落组装、食物网相互作用和相关的生态系统功能

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-07215
• 负责人: Handa, IraTanya
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: Université du Québec à Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=739366
• 关键词: Unravelling; how; urbanization; influences; soil

With increasing urbanization across the planet, a majority of humans are living in urban ecosystems that are still poorly understood. Urban soils have diverse origins, are heavily disturbed and managed through human activity and host novel plant communities that include nonnative species selected by urban planners and gardeners. These plants provide new sources of organic matter input to soils, but are also often removed from the ecosystem (e.g. autumn leaf litter, dead wood) with potentially important consequences for soil biota. Despite invertebrates contributing to key ecosystem functions such as organic matter decomposition, soil structure and nutrient cycling, little is known about how the mosaic of habitat types and management practices in cities affects soil invertebrate communities and their food web interactions. This research program aims to understand how different abiotic filters (e.g. soil compaction, sealed surfaces or pollutants) and biotic filters (leaf litter removal, nonnative plant species and microbial communities) linked with urbanization influence soil invertebrate community assembly, soil food web interactions and associated ecosystem functions. Do we observe homogenization of soil invertebrate consumers and their resources or is functional diversity maintained across urbanization gradients in Canadian cities? Does urbanization influence the spatial covariation of consumer and resource traits and subsequently consumer-resource interactions in urban soil food webs? Can understanding dispersal traits of dominant invertebrates, the presence of non-native earthworms or fragmentation due to removal of leaf litter help explain such patterns? Is supporting ecosystem service provision such as nutrient cycling during litter decomposition or soil infiltration constant with urbanization? Using observational, experimental and modelling approaches in the field and laboratory, as well as state-of-the-art tools like compound specific stable isotope analysis of amino acids, we will explore these questions. This research program is poised to make novel contributions to advance fundamental understanding of soil food webs and functional interactions among litter and soil-dwelling invertebrates. Additionally, it will provide critical baseline knowledge for urban ecosystem managers and urban developers, based on research in Canadian cities, to make more informed decisions in city planning by considering soil biodiversity and the ecosystem services they support.

随着整个地球的城市化越来越多，大多数人都生活在仍然知之甚少的城市生态系统中。城市土壤具有多种起源，通过人类活动受到严重打扰和管理，并拥有新的植物群落，其中包括城市规划师和园丁选择的非本地物种。这些植物为土壤提供了有机物输入的新来源，但通常也从生态系统（例如秋叶，死木）中删除，对土壤生物群可能会带来重要的后果。尽管无脊椎动物促进了关键生态系统功能，例如有机物分解，土壤结构和养分循环，但对城市中栖息地类型和管理实践的镶嵌方式却几乎了解到土壤无脊椎动物群落及其食物网络互动。该研究计划旨在了解不同的非生物过滤器（例如土壤压实，密封表面或污染物）以及与城市化有关的生物滤清器（去除叶子垃圾，非本地植物物种和微生物群落）如何影响土壤无脊椎动物社区组合，土壤食品互动及其相关的食物互动及其相关的相关食品互动生态系统功能。我们是否观察到土壤无脊椎动物消费者及其资源的均质化，还是在加拿大城市的城市化梯度中维持的功能多样性？城市化会影响消费者和资源特征的空间协方差，以及随后在城市土壤食品网中的消费者资源相互作用吗？能够理解主要无脊椎动物的分散性状，非本地earth的存在或由于叶子垃圾的去除而导致的破碎有助于解释这种模式吗？支持生态系统服务提供的提供，例如在垃圾分解过程中营养循环或随着城市化的渗透而渗透不断？使用现场和实验室中的观测，实验和建模方法，以及最先进的工具，例如对氨基酸的复合特定稳定同位素分析，我们将探讨这些问题。该研究计划有望做出新的贡献，以提高对土壤食物网的基本了解以及垃圾和土壤无脊椎动物之间的功能相互作用。此外，基于加拿大城市的研究，它将为城市生态系统经理和城市开发商提供重要的基线知识，以考虑通过考虑土壤生物多样性和所支持的生态系统服务来做出更明智的决定。