Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/D000300/1
Evaluating Dynamic, Functional and Biodiversity Changes Across Tropical Forests, with special reference to Africa
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor SL Lewis, University of Leeds, Sch of Geography
- Grant held at:
- University of Leeds, Sch of Geography
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Atmospheric
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Global Change
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Ecosystem Scale Processes
- Survey & Monitoring
- Community Ecology
- Climate & Climate Change
- Abstract:
- Both climate change and tropical deforestation have regularly been in the news for years. We know they are important issues, but they are often dealt with in isolation. This is largely true both in the wider media and within the scientific community. For example, remaining 'virgin' tropical forests are thought by many to be pristine environments. However, we now know that human impacts on the environment, such as rising air temperatures, affect even remote areas. Moreover, the 21st century will see these global environmental changes reach unprecedented levels: air temperatures will continue to rise, and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will reach levels unprecedented over the past 20 million years. Alone, these global changes will change tropical forests, while in concert with other human impacts the implications are likely to be staggering, since deforestation alone is predicted to cause the sixth mass extinction in evolutionary history. Recent research shows that apparently undisturbed tropical forests have altered dramatically over recent decades: (1) they have become a net carbon sink, absorbing carbon and buffering the rate of climate change, (2) their tree populations have become much more dynamic, and (3) these two trends have occurred simultaneously within the same forest stands, as forest productivity has increased. So far however, studies of long-term changes in tropical forests have been mostly focused on South American forests, and have investigated only stand-level properties (only the behaviour of all the trees together has been studied). Thus several major questions remain: (1) Are these concerted changes occurring in South American forests also occurring across other continents? (2) Are some tree species becoming more abundant at the expense of others? And what do these changes mean for critical ecosystem functions, such as how much carbon these forests store? (3) What drivers are causing such changes? Myself and colleagues have been collating data from >200 long-term tropical forest monitoring plots, and I have 5+ years funding from a Royal Society fellowship to answer these questions. However, there are two key limitations to the current dataset: firstly the second largest area of tropical forest on Earth is the Congo basin, yet there are very few monitoring plots there, and secondly there are too few plots in Africa with three repeat sets of measurements available to evaluate changes in growth, recruitment, mortality rates across Africa. A new investigators award will allow me to make repeat measurements of monitoring plots across Africa. This targeted fieldwork, including collecting missing data on relevant plant functional traits, alongside novel analytical techniques, will answer the three major questions above, with the statistical power required to detect change increasing massively with only modest additional funding. The results from this research will be of great societal importance for two reasons. Firstly, will surviving tropical forests remain a carbon sink - currently equivalent to ~15% of global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use - or will rising temperatures and other changes cause them to become a carbon source with the potential to increase the rate and magnitude of climate change? Secondly, as tropical forests house more than half the world's species, the interactive balance of millions of plant and animal species is bound to change, even within the largest areas of forest. What does this mean for global biodiversity conservation? On the ground monitoring of forests, as this project proposes, to understand how, when and where changes in the composition and carbon balance of tropical forests are occurring will provide essential information that will assist policy makers and wider civil society to make better-informed choices about the kind of future world we want to live in.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/D000300/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- New Investigators Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- New Investigators
This grant award has a total value of £51,754
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs |
|---|---|
| £11,140 | £40,614 |
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