Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/L008823/1
Biodiversity Status, Drivers and Indicators from biological records
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Dr NJ Isaac, NERC CEH (Up to 30.11.2019), Biodiversity (Wallingford)
- Grant held at:
- NERC CEH (Up to 30.11.2019), Biodiversity (Wallingford)
- Science Area:
- Freshwater
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) mandates 193 national governments to monitor and report on the status of their biodiversity. In 2010 the signatories agreed to 20 targets (the Aichi targets) to reduce the loss of biodiversity and the erosion of ecosystem services by 2020. Scientists have two important roles in delivering these targets: 1) improving understanding of the links between external threatening processes and biodiversity loss, and 2) developing robust indicators to assess progress towards the Aichi targets. This project will fulfil both these roles. The UK has been a leader in the development of biodiversity indicators [1,2,3]. In part, this leadership stems from the unrivalled data on UK biodiversity collected by volunteer citizen scientists, worth millions of pounds each year. Volunteer-collected datasets currently contribute to annual indicators of the status of UK birds, butterflies and mammals [4], based on long-term monitoring of population abundance. Much less is known about the status of the rest of UK biodiversity, for whom data is available on their distribution, but not abundance. Around 90 million of these "biological records" have been assembled by the National Biodiversity Network, representing a vast and untapped source of information about biodiversity change and its causes. Unlocking the potential of these data is therefore a key challenge for biodiversity scientists, and one that is recognised by the updated NERC strategy (challenge 6.4). Recently, a range of methods have been proposed to overcome biases in the collection of biological records, allowing them to be applied to large-scale questions about biodiversity [5,6,7]. The State of Nature report (led by supervisors of this project) included qualitative status estimates for over 1000 native species of invertebrates and plants. This studentship builds on these achievements and has the three over-arching aims: A. Characterise the phenomenology of changes in the distributions of UK native species (Objectives 1,2) B. Understand how changes in UK biodiversity are driven by land use, climate, species traits and their interaction (Objective 3,4). C. Explore options for developing robust quantitative biodiversity indicators based on biological records (Objectives 5,6). The project brings together a strong interdisciplinary team of supervisors with expertise in working with large unstructured ecological datasets, the development of policy-relevant biodiversity indicators and advanced statistical techniques (e.g. Occupancy modelling, State space models) that have only recently been applied to ecological data. Outputs from this work will help governments report against national and international targets for biodiversity and the services it supports. References 1 Butchart et al (2010) Science 328, 1164 2 Gregory et al (2005) Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 360, 269 3 Collen et al. (2009) Conserv Biol 23, 317 4 Defra (2012) UK Biodiversity Indicators in Your Pocket 2012 5 Hill (2011) Methods Ecol Evol 3, 195 6 Roy et al (2012) Divers Distrib 18, 717 7 Van Strien et al (2010) Basic & Appl Ecol 11, 495
- NERC Reference:
- NE/L008823/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Industrial CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £83,515
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - Student Stipend | Total - RTSG |
|---|---|---|
| £16,226 | £56,292 | £11,000 |
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