TREMOR: Mechanisms and consequences of increasing TREe MORtality in Amazonian rainforests
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Sch of Geography
Abstract
Mortality rates of trees in Amazonian rainforests have been increasing for at least 20 years. Yet, there have been no real attempts to understand the mechanistic basis of this result. TREMOR will use a combination of forest inventory data analysis and process-based modelling to investigate several hypotheses that could explain the increases in mortality. These hypotheses include (i) increasing wind disturbance, (ii) increasing drought frequency, (iii) increasing liana abundance, (iv) increased competition and (v) faster senescence. Finally, we hope to scale-up the impacts of increasing tree mortality on Amazon-wide carbon storage by using a dynamic global vegetation model.
Planned Impact
We expect our work to have impact locally and more widely.
Local Impacts
1. Strengthening of local institutions.
We believe that it is important for local institutions and communities to be fully engaged with the work we do. Our measurement sites will be spread across different parts of South America. The project will create direct opportunities to strengthen local research institutions. The field data generated by the project has the potential to generate several spin-off MSc and PhD projects that local students could undertake and we will seek to actively develop these possibilities.
2. Policymakers in South American countries.
Our team already has strong links with policymakers in South America. We seek to develop this further by holding one-day workshops with community leaders, conservation leaders, members of local government and other stakeholders to discuss our work.
Wider impacts
3. The general UK (and wider) public. The work done by members of our team has generated plenty of media interest in recent years. We are firmly committed to disseminating the results obtained by this Project to the wider public, as we have done with our previous research. To improve our ability to communicate our research to the general public, the PI will attend media training course at the Royal Society. The ForestPlots.net and RAINFOR websites currently provide a portal of engagement with the wider public, both in Latin America and the UK. The interface of both websites is already trilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese) and we have trilingual social media (Facebook, Twitter). In TREMOR, we aim to enhance our public & policy engagement by developing interactivity. More specifically, we aim to develop a new graphical interface to demonstrate results in maps and allow users to interactively create visualisations of (a) tree mortality trends and (b) key modelling results showing projected future trends, their sensitivity to climate-change, and consequences for carbon storage.
4. . Research-based teaching
We are firm believers in communicating the excitement of our research to university and high school students in the UK. The University of Leeds already has a culture of research-based teaching and the work proposed in this project will be incorporated in appropriate lecture material for Level-2 and Level-3 courses on Ecosystem Processes and Amazonian rainforests, respectively. University Open Days regularly feature the work of our team and we will prepare and Open Day 'taster' sessions on the topic of increasing tree mortality in Amazonian rainforests. The Geography Department at the University of Leeds also has a regular outreach programme to local schools and teachers. Recent examples of this include a visit to Notre Dame High School, located close to the University of Leeds campus as part of a careers event for final year students and a presentation made to a group of local school teachers on advances in geography. We hope to make the most of these existing opportunities to communicate our science to high school students and teachers and allow them to ask us questions on our work. This outreach will be done at no extra cost to NERC.
Local Impacts
1. Strengthening of local institutions.
We believe that it is important for local institutions and communities to be fully engaged with the work we do. Our measurement sites will be spread across different parts of South America. The project will create direct opportunities to strengthen local research institutions. The field data generated by the project has the potential to generate several spin-off MSc and PhD projects that local students could undertake and we will seek to actively develop these possibilities.
2. Policymakers in South American countries.
Our team already has strong links with policymakers in South America. We seek to develop this further by holding one-day workshops with community leaders, conservation leaders, members of local government and other stakeholders to discuss our work.
Wider impacts
3. The general UK (and wider) public. The work done by members of our team has generated plenty of media interest in recent years. We are firmly committed to disseminating the results obtained by this Project to the wider public, as we have done with our previous research. To improve our ability to communicate our research to the general public, the PI will attend media training course at the Royal Society. The ForestPlots.net and RAINFOR websites currently provide a portal of engagement with the wider public, both in Latin America and the UK. The interface of both websites is already trilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese) and we have trilingual social media (Facebook, Twitter). In TREMOR, we aim to enhance our public & policy engagement by developing interactivity. More specifically, we aim to develop a new graphical interface to demonstrate results in maps and allow users to interactively create visualisations of (a) tree mortality trends and (b) key modelling results showing projected future trends, their sensitivity to climate-change, and consequences for carbon storage.
4. . Research-based teaching
We are firm believers in communicating the excitement of our research to university and high school students in the UK. The University of Leeds already has a culture of research-based teaching and the work proposed in this project will be incorporated in appropriate lecture material for Level-2 and Level-3 courses on Ecosystem Processes and Amazonian rainforests, respectively. University Open Days regularly feature the work of our team and we will prepare and Open Day 'taster' sessions on the topic of increasing tree mortality in Amazonian rainforests. The Geography Department at the University of Leeds also has a regular outreach programme to local schools and teachers. Recent examples of this include a visit to Notre Dame High School, located close to the University of Leeds campus as part of a careers event for final year students and a presentation made to a group of local school teachers on advances in geography. We hope to make the most of these existing opportunities to communicate our science to high school students and teachers and allow them to ask us questions on our work. This outreach will be done at no extra cost to NERC.
Organisations
- University of Leeds (Lead Research Organisation)
- Federal University of Acre (Collaboration)
- Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (Collaboration)
- State University of Campinas (Collaboration)
- Kerala Forest Research Institute (Collaboration)
- Australian National University (ANU) (Collaboration)
- Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre (Collaboration)
- University of Plymouth (Collaboration)
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Project Partner)
- University of Exeter (Project Partner)
- University of Edinburgh (Project Partner)
Publications
Johnson MO
(2016)
Variation in stem mortality rates determines patterns of above-ground biomass in Amazonian forests: implications for dynamic global vegetation models.
in Global change biology
Christoffersen B
(2016)
Linking hydraulic traits to tropical forest function in a size-structured and trait-driven model (TFS v.1-Hydro)
in Geoscientific Model Development
Anderegg W
(2016)
When a Tree Dies in the Forest: Scaling Climate-Driven Tree Mortality to Ecosystem Water and Carbon Fluxes
in Ecosystems
Esquivel-Muelbert A
(2017)
Biogeographic distributions of neotropical trees reflect their directly measured drought tolerances.
in Scientific reports
Elias F
(2018)
Idiosyncratic soil-tree species associations and their relationships with drought in a monodominant Amazon forest
in Acta Oecologica
Kalamandeen M
(2018)
Pervasive Rise of Small-scale Deforestation in Amazonia.
in Scientific reports
McDowell N
(2018)
Drivers and mechanisms of tree mortality in moist tropical forests.
in The New phytologist
Hartmann H
(2018)
Research frontiers for improving our understanding of drought-induced tree and forest mortality.
in The New phytologist
Fauset S
(2019)
Contrasting responses of stomatal conductance and photosynthetic capacity to warming and elevated CO2 in the tropical tree species Alchornea glandulosa under heatwave conditions
in Environmental and Experimental Botany
Esquivel-Muelbert A
(2019)
Compositional response of Amazon forests to climate change.
in Global change biology
Coelho De Souza F
(2019)
Evolutionary diversity is associated with wood productivity in Amazonian forests.
in Nature ecology & evolution
Marimon-Junior B
(2019)
Soil water-holding capacity and monodominance in Southern Amazon tropical forests
in Plant and Soil
Wang Y
(2019)
Mapping tropical disturbed forests using multi-decadal 30 m optical satellite imagery
in Remote Sensing of Environment
Wang Y
(2020)
Upturn in secondary forest clearing buffers primary forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon
in Nature Sustainability
Kalamandeen M
(2020)
Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests
in Journal of Applied Ecology
Rozendaal DMA
(2020)
Competition influences tree growth, but not mortality, across environmental gradients in Amazonia and tropical Africa.
in Ecology
Reis S
(2020)
Causes and consequences of liana infestation in southern Amazonia
in Journal of Ecology
Locosselli GM
(2020)
Global tree-ring analysis reveals rapid decrease in tropical tree longevity with temperature.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Aguirre-Gutiérrez J
(2020)
Long-term droughts may drive drier tropical forests towards increased functional, taxonomic and phylogenetic homogeneity.
in Nature communications
Sullivan MJP
(2020)
Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth's tropical forests.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Esquivel-Muelbert A
(2020)
Tree mode of death and mortality risk factors across Amazon forests
in Nature Communications
Loubota Panzou G
(2020)
Pantropical variability in tree crown allometry
in Global Ecology and Biogeography
Brienen R
(2020)
Forest carbon sink neutralized by pervasive growth-lifespan trade-offs
in Nature Communications
Tiwari R
(2021)
Photosynthetic quantum efficiency in south-eastern Amazonian trees may be already affected by climate change.
in Plant, cell & environment
ForestPlots.net
(2021)
Taking the pulse of Earth's tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plots
in Biological Conservation
Signori-Müller C
(2021)
Variation of non-structural carbohydrates across the fast-slow continuum in Amazon Forest canopy trees
in Functional Ecology
Walker AP
(2021)
Integrating the evidence for a terrestrial carbon sink caused by increasing atmospheric CO2.
in The New phytologist
Esquivel-Muelbert A
(2021)
Author Correction: Tree mode of death and mortality risk factors across Amazon forests.
in Nature communications
Fancourt M
(2022)
Background climate conditions regulated the photosynthetic response of Amazon forests to the 2015/2016 El Nino-Southern Oscillation event
in Communications Earth & Environment
Chambers-Ostler A
(2022)
Vessel tapering is conserved along a precipitation gradient in tropical trees of the genus Cedrela
in Trees
Reis S
(2022)
Climate and crown damage drive tree mortality in southern Amazonian edge forests
in Journal of Ecology
Rodrigues A
(2022)
A test of the fast-slow plant economy hypothesis in a subtropical rain forest
in Plant Ecology & Diversity
Signori-Müller C
(2023)
Tropical forest lianas have greater non-structural carbohydrate concentrations in the stem xylem than trees
in Tree Physiology
| Description | TREMOR has achieved several key 'firsts', which are currently either in review or under an advanced stage of preparation : 1) the first analysis of predictors of tree-death across the entire Amazon, 2) the first pan-Amazon evaluation of plant hydraulic properties associated with resistance to drought, 3) the first large-scale assessment of non-structural carbohydrate concentrations across Amazonia and 4) the first evaluation of how tree mortality trends differ across different Amazon regions. Significant project manuscripts include a publication in Nature Communications in 2020 on the underlying causes of tree death across Amazonia forests, using data from over 120,000 trees (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18996-3). The study received wide attention from a broad range of national and international media (e.g. https://www.dw.com/pt-br/árvores-amazônicas-estão-vivendo-menos-diz-estudo/a-55585568) and unravelled the importance of a large number of individual and species-level predictors on the tree mortality of Amazonian trees. Another significant project manuscript, accepted in Nature Communications, highlights the important role of non-structural carbohydrates in modulating seasonal response to drought in Amazonian forests. Our study on variation in hydraulic traits across Amazonia is now under review in Nature. |
| Exploitation Route | The project provides substantial new insights into how trees die and why tree mortality has been increasing across Amazonia. The new datasets generated allow us to understand how sensitivity to drought varies across Amazon forests over large spatial scales and helps to constrain vegetation model predictions of the climate change impacts on Amazon forests. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| URL | https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/science/scientists-reveal-why-tropical-trees-die-in-csi-amazon.html |
| Description | TREMOR has played an important part in training a new generation of scientists, providing them with important expertise that will allow them to gain insights into the sensitivity of tropical ecosystems to drought. All project field campaigns thus far have involved local undergraduate and master's level students. In total, ~20 students from three different South American countries (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru) have participated in project field campaigns. Some of these have gone on to use skills acquired through the project in their dissertations and have gone on to train other students as well. The data collected by the project has also directly been used by two Brazilian PhD students (one based at Leeds and one based at UNICAMP in Sao Paulo) and three MSc students in Acre. Additional workshops have been held in all three partner countries, raising awareness of the potential impacts of climate change on local ecosystems and providing a wide array of local students with opportunities to learn how to make measurements of plant hydraulic traits. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | ARBOLES: A trait-based Understanding of LATAM Forest Biodiversity and Resilience |
| Amount | £1,356,155 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/S011811/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 01/2022 |
| Description | CAPES studentship to Julia Tavares (Project Team Member) |
| Amount | £150,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BEX-1293/15-0 |
| Organisation | Government of Brazil |
| Department | Coordination of Higher Education Personnel Training (CAPES) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Brazil |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Leeds Climate Bursary Award to Julia Tavares for Additional Field Funding |
| Amount | £2,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Leeds Alumni |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2018 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Title | Absorption spectra of soybean measured in situ at two different temperatures |
| Description | The dataset was collected using the leaf chamber spectrometer connected to an infrared greenhouse gas analyser (Li-6400) on soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) cultivar (Williams 82) third trifoliate leaves on 3-week old plants (vegetative growth stages V3 and V4). Seeds were sourced from Iowa State University, USA. Plants were grown in pots in the controlled environment facility in the Faculty of Biological Sciences, Plant Growth Suite, University of Leeds. The growth conditions were 25C day/night temperatures, 50% relative humidity, with a 16 h photoperiod at an irradiance of 400-600 µmol photons /m2/s. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Absorption_spectra_of_soybean_measured_in_situ_at_two_differen... |
| Title | Absorption spectra of soybean measured in situ at two different temperatures and electron transport rate data |
| Description | The dataset was collected using the leaf chamber spectrometer connected to an infrared greenhouse gas analyser (Li-6400) on soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) cultivar (Williams 82) third trifoliate leaves on 3-week old plants (vegetative growth stages V3 and V4). Seeds were sourced from Iowa State University, USA. Plants were grown in pots in the controlled environment facility in the Faculty of Biological Sciences, Plant Growth Suite, University of Leeds. The growth conditions were 25C day/night temperatures, 50% relative humidity, with a 16 h photoperiod at an irradiance of 400-600 µmol photons /m2/s.Electron transport rates were measured on a separate set of plants using a leaf chamber fluorometer (Li-6400-40) attached to the infrared greenhouse gas analyzer (Li-6400). Leaves were exposed to temperatures between 25°C and 35°C in the leaf chamber. Each temperature point was allowed to stabilize for a minimum of 7 minutes. The leaves experienced increasing temperatures (25, 27, 30, 33, and 35°C) and for comparable durations before reaching 35°C. Hence, the data presented for the ETR are different in duration of treatment to the 15-minute fixed duration treatment experiments. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The study provided novel insights into leaf spectral responses to short-term temperature increases. |
| URL | https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Absorption_spectra_of_soybean_measured_in_situ_at_two_differen... |
| Title | Improved individual-based model with plant hydraulics |
| Description | TREMOR has led to the development of the TFS (Trait-based forest simulator) model to include a detailed treatment of plant hydraulic function. This will be further developed to link plant hydraulics with tree mortality. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The model will be used to evaluate how diversity in plant hydraulic strategies within and across Amazonian forests influences ecosystem response to water stress. |
| Title | New analysis of the risk factors of tree death in Amazonia |
| Description | In TREMOR, we have conducted the first pan-Amazon analysis of the risk factors of tree death, including species-level risk factors (e.g. species mean growth rate and drought affiliation status) and individual-level risk factors (e.g. size). |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This analysis has been submitted for review. The results provide valuable data for constraining the development of ecosystem models, with mortality processes being a current focus of development. |
| Title | Plant hydraulics traits for Amazonia |
| Description | Fieldwork conducted as part of TREMOR in Years 1 & 2 of the project has resulted in a substantial pan-Amazonian dataset of plant hydraulic properties and non-structural carbohydrates, that will, for the first time allow us to infer how vulnerability to drought varies across different Amazonian forests. In total, 16 different hydraulic properties were measured. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Once complete and published, the dataset will be used by modelling groups to develop better model of drought-induced impacts on forest productivity and mortality. |
| Description | Collaboration with the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana |
| Organisation | Peruvian Amazon Research Institute |
| Country | Peru |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | IIAP is a core Latin American Project partner in ARBOLES, receiving CONCYTEC funding to establish climate-conditioned greenhouses to test the sensitivity of commercially sensitive tree species to temperature and water stress. The experimental set-up in IIAP mimics that being set up in our study site in Nova Xavantina, Brazil. Leeds has provided important inputs into the design of the greenhouse and the temperature regulation system. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IIAP partners (Jhon Aguilar, Nallaret Davila, Euridice Honorio) have coordinated the construction of the greenhouse (now in place) and are currently undertaking germination studies to decide on the species for the first round of warming experiments. IIAP will also lead the data collection within the Peruvian experiments. |
| Impact | No outputs yet |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Global forest canopy temperature network NetCTF |
| Organisation | University of Plymouth |
| Department | Psychology Plymouth |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Involvement (Co-supervision) of PhD student who examining differences of canopy thermal regulation of high CO2 versus ambient CO2 exposure tree crowns at the BIFOR face experiment and who installed continuous measurement capability at a newly constructed tropical forest canopy overlooking tower in Ghana. Similar to other projects of ours the purpose of these measurements is to obtain a mechanistic understanding of limits of functioning of tropical forests. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Measurements of canopy thermal regulation of high CO2 versus ambient CO2 exposure tree crowns at the BIFOR face experiment and installation of continuous measurement capability at a newly constructed tropical forest canopy overlooking tower in Ghana. Similar to other projects of ours the purpose of these measurements is to obtain a mechanistic understanding of limits of functioning of tropical forests. |
| Impact | Work ongoing. Very interesting results with manuscripts in preparation. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Leeds (EGC)-CREAF |
| Organisation | Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration is between the Leeds project team and Prof. Maurizio Mencuccini's lab in CREAF. Prof. Mencuccini co-supervises a student with me and TREMOR co-I Emanuel Gloor and will also participate in project fieldwork. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Mencuccini and his lab provide incredibly valuable expertise on plant hydraulics. They have hosted the Leeds team in Barcelona for training in plant hydraulic measurements. |
| Impact | This collaboration is very new - no TREMOR-related outputs have been generated yet. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Leeds - UNICAMP |
| Organisation | State University of Campinas |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This is a new partnership, developed specifically through TREMOR, between the Ecology and Global Change research cluster and Department of Plant Sciences in the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) to determine plant hydraulic properties across Amazonia. Researchers from Leeds and UNICAMP have conducted joint fieldwork through the partnership. Carol Signori from UNICAMP was awarded a studentship to spend one year in Leeds writing up papers from her PhD in Leeds. Additional ODA funding from TREMOR has also directly contributed to the training of a technician from UNICAMP. ODA funding tied to TREMOR has further allowed the training of a UNICAMP technician, Eduardo Kiyota, in cutting-edge isotopic analysis. |
| Collaborator Contribution | UNICAMP has contributed with significant technical expertise in the measurement of plant hydraulic properties. More specifically, members of the TREMOR team spent time at UNICAMP learning a novel method for constructing xylem vulnerability curves, which has since been applied across all of our Amazonian sites. |
| Impact | A PhD student at UNICAMP, Carol Signori, is currently in Leeds for a year following an award of a 1-year CAPES studentship. She is writing up three manuscripts which directly build on the Leeds/UNICAMP collaboration. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Leeds(EGC) - ANU(SoB) |
| Organisation | Australian National University (ANU) |
| Department | College of Medicine, Biology & Environment (CMBE) |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | TREMOR has directly contributed to recent grant applications by Prof. Meir by providing modelling expertise in forest dynamics, including forest sensitivity to drought. As a result of this collaboration, a Master's student from ANU (James Milner) has just completed a 1-month visit to Leeds to be trained in individual-based modelling. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Meir is an expert in drought physiology who has led a throughfall exclusion experiment in Amazonia since 2002. He provides invaluable advice on field measurements made within TREMOR. |
| Impact | Although the collaboration with ANU is novel, I have been collaborating with Prof. Meir for several years, while he was based in Edinburgh. This collaboration has resulted in various jointly authored publications, including some in high-impact journals such as Nature, Nature Geoscience and PNAS. These publications all pre-date the start of TREMOR. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | TREMOR/Universidade Federal do Acre |
| Organisation | Federal University of Acre |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | TREMOR has enabled the training of a Masters student, Martin Acosta, at the Universidade Federal do Acre (UFAC), who are now developing independent MSc projects using the skills they acquired through involvement with TREMOR. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners have provided invaluable logistical support for project field campaigns in Acre. |
| Impact | Award of MSc stipend to Martin Acosta based on a project idea developed in collaboration with TREMOR staff. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Western Ghats tropical forest observation network |
| Organisation | Kerala Forest Research Institute |
| Country | India |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Dr. Sreejith Kalpuza runs a network of forest sites in Western Ghats Kerala, South of the site where we study tropical forest vulnerability to heat and drought. Together with sites run by Dr. Barua a large climatic gradient is covered which opens up to generalize our results along this gradient. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Sharing of relevant data. |
| Impact | Too early still. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Delivery of Climate Sensitivity workshop in Acre, Brazil |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This workshop was run by a University of Leeds team (David Galbraith, Julia Tavares, Emma Docherty) at the Universidade Federal do Acre (UFAC), Brazil, in November 2019. At the workshop, postgraduate students were taught how to make key traits indicative of climate sensitivity (hydraulic and thermal traits), advanced analysis of trait data in R and the basics of ecosystem modelling with Python. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Ecophysiology workshop Sirsi, Indian Western Ghats |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 40 graduate and post-graduate students from all across India attended a 1 week tree ecophysiology workshop organised by the holder of the grant. It included theory, hands on training on instruments like LICOR, a two day project and presentation. The workshop was a success. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk Plant Ecophysiology Workshop Kerala Forestry Institute KFRI |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Live lecture to postgraduate students at the Universidade Federal do Pará |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was a live lecture, streamed via youtube, on the carbon cycle of Amazon rainforests and its sensitivity to climate and land use change. The lecture was followed by a Q&A session where students from across Brazilian universities engaged with the discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkkpYz53GOo |
| Description | Public lectures in Brazil (UFPA, INPE) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Two presentations given in Belem, Brazil, one at the Federal University of Para, the other at the Brazilian Space Institute on the topic of climate change impacts on Amazon forests, in which current TREMOR work featured prominently. Talks were attended by university and research staff, postgraduate students, undergraduate students and technical staff. Talks were followed by discussion on several aspects of the climate sensitivity of tropical forests. Further discussions were held about the possibility of establishing more formal links between the University of Leeds and the UFPA for hosting PhD students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | School Talk at Highfield Primary School |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Interactive given to ~60 Year 4 students at Highfield Primary School, Leeds. The talk focused on the Amazon rainforest and why it is important for our planet. Students asked many questions about the Amazon and enthusiastically participated in discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Training Workshop in Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was a 2-day workshop was held at Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff, focusing on training 15 undergraduate students in making measurements of plant hydraulics. This included guidance on making vulnerability curve measurements, stomatal conductance measurements and leaf water potential measurements. Training was also given in the preparation and collection of samples for analysis of non-structural carbohydrates and isotopic analysis of soil samples. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Training workshop in Iquitos |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This workshop was organised in IIAP (Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana) by the TREMOR team to discuss potential climate change impacts on Peruvian forests and raise awareness of the importance of hydraulic measurements for understanding forest vulnerability to climate change. The audience was mainly undergraduate students with some postgraduate students involved. Some students were then trained in making plant hydraulic measurements and participated in the project campaigns in Alpahuayo and Sucusari, both close to Iquitos. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Tropical forests and the decline of the carbon sink talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | UK BEIS with many international attendees, Tropical forests and the decline of the carbon sink talk (virtual), Oliver Phillips |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Workshop in Rio Branco, Acre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This 1-day workshop was organised and run by the TREMOR team at the Universidade Federal do Acre in Rio Branco, Brazil. It was attended by approximately 40 masters-level and undergraduate students. The team gave several talks on climate change impacts on forests and the importance of making measurements of plant hydraulic vulnerability. These talks were followed by hands-on teaching of several hydraulic measurements. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |