Nordeste: New science for a neglected biome
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Department Name: Tropical Biology
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Planned Impact
Most conservation and science projects in the tropics focus on the rain forest biome, neglecting the fact that 50% of the lowland tropics is covered by dry biomes such as dry forests or savannas. These dry areas are home to 30% of the global population, and are hence massively impacted by human activity. This project focuses on the dry forests of the Caatinga region of North East Brazil, which have suffered from scientific neglect, destruction, and lack of conservation attention, with only <1% of these forests included in Brazil's National Protected Area Network. Despite this, the dry forests of the Caatinga house a high level of unique (endemic) plant species that are adapted to the region's severe and erratic droughts. These plants will be a valuable resource as climates change especially for the 15% of Brazil's population that lives in the Caatinga region who depend on these woodlands for ecosystem services and more specific needs such as firewood.
Our project will increase our understanding on how dry biomes contribute to global biogeochemical cycles and how their unique species react to environmental changes, expanding ecological and biodiversity monitoring in Brazil beyond Amazonia and into the Caatinga. The project will build a platform from which Brazil, and Latin America more generally, can monitor more effectively biodiversity and ecosystem services in dry biomes.
We aim to develop whole-system knowledge for the Caatinga to inform responsible management of this unique environment at national and regional political level in Brazil. Brazil has an obligation to monitor its biodiversity and carbon stocks under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Aichi 2020 Biodiversity Targets, but most previous work has been focused on Amazonia. In particular, this project is relevant to achieving Strategic Goal 3 ('...safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity through direct interventions such as increasing the coverage, effectiveness and representativeness of protected areas and other area-based conservation measures...') and Strategic Goal 4 ('...safeguarding and enhancement of the benefits of biodiversity and ecosystem services to human societies') of the Aichi targets.
Our project will provide impetus and build capacity for conservation action in the Caatinga. We aim to build bridges between scientists and policy makers who can influence their protection and sustainable management at federal and state level via two policy meetings in Brasilia and Salvador. We will also build environmental science capacity in Brazil for undergraduate and postgraduate students in cutting edge methodologies in biodiversity and ecological science, and involve local communities in the collection of our biodiversity and ecological data. Our project will therefore build long-term capacity to monitor species composition, carbon stock, biogeochemical cycles, vegetation dynamics, and biodiversity loss in the Caatinga.
The project will also benefit local people in NE Brazil through delivery of user-friendly information about plant species useful for ecological restoration, crop wild relatives, minor crops, and useful plants. In the long-term, our science will provide information essentially to successful restoration of Caatinga, for example by a better understanding of the genetic diversity of its plants. Such restoration could have major regional and global ecological effects - for example it has been estimated that large scale dry forest restoration in Latin America could generate up to 8Pg of carbon storage. In the long-term, the knowledge of biome-level ecological processes gained during the project will enable the sustainable management of ecosystem services that underlie human wellbeing in Brazil and more widely.
Our project will increase our understanding on how dry biomes contribute to global biogeochemical cycles and how their unique species react to environmental changes, expanding ecological and biodiversity monitoring in Brazil beyond Amazonia and into the Caatinga. The project will build a platform from which Brazil, and Latin America more generally, can monitor more effectively biodiversity and ecosystem services in dry biomes.
We aim to develop whole-system knowledge for the Caatinga to inform responsible management of this unique environment at national and regional political level in Brazil. Brazil has an obligation to monitor its biodiversity and carbon stocks under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Aichi 2020 Biodiversity Targets, but most previous work has been focused on Amazonia. In particular, this project is relevant to achieving Strategic Goal 3 ('...safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity through direct interventions such as increasing the coverage, effectiveness and representativeness of protected areas and other area-based conservation measures...') and Strategic Goal 4 ('...safeguarding and enhancement of the benefits of biodiversity and ecosystem services to human societies') of the Aichi targets.
Our project will provide impetus and build capacity for conservation action in the Caatinga. We aim to build bridges between scientists and policy makers who can influence their protection and sustainable management at federal and state level via two policy meetings in Brasilia and Salvador. We will also build environmental science capacity in Brazil for undergraduate and postgraduate students in cutting edge methodologies in biodiversity and ecological science, and involve local communities in the collection of our biodiversity and ecological data. Our project will therefore build long-term capacity to monitor species composition, carbon stock, biogeochemical cycles, vegetation dynamics, and biodiversity loss in the Caatinga.
The project will also benefit local people in NE Brazil through delivery of user-friendly information about plant species useful for ecological restoration, crop wild relatives, minor crops, and useful plants. In the long-term, our science will provide information essentially to successful restoration of Caatinga, for example by a better understanding of the genetic diversity of its plants. Such restoration could have major regional and global ecological effects - for example it has been estimated that large scale dry forest restoration in Latin America could generate up to 8Pg of carbon storage. In the long-term, the knowledge of biome-level ecological processes gained during the project will enable the sustainable management of ecosystem services that underlie human wellbeing in Brazil and more widely.
Publications
Cardoso D
(2017)
Amazon plant diversity revealed by a taxonomically verified species list.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Cardoso D
(2021)
Defining Biologically Meaningful Biomes Through Floristic, Functional, and Phylogenetic Data
in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Cardoso, D.C.
(2019)
Aeschynomene chicocesariana, a Striking New Unifoliolate Legume Species from the Brazilian Chapada Diamantina and Its Phylogenetic Placement in the Dalbergioid Clade
in Systematic Botany
Casanova J
(2020)
Floral morphology and development in Tachigali (Caesalpinioideae, Leguminosae), a predominantly rainforest tree genus with contrasting flower architectures
in Plant Systematics and Evolution
Dick C
(2019)
History and Geography of Neotropical Tree Diversity
in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
Draper FC
(2020)
Quantifying Tropical Plant Diversity Requires an Integrated Technological Approach.
in Trends in ecology & evolution
Fernandes M
(2022)
The Origins and Historical Assembly of the Brazilian Caatinga Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests
in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Fernandes M
(2020)
An updated plant checklist of the Brazilian Caatinga seasonally dry forests and woodlands reveals high species richness and endemism
in Journal of Arid Environments
| Description | The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh led one workpackage of the wider Nordeste project that focused on plant species diversity in the caatinga dry forests. It contributed a robust and standardized plant biodiversity dataset that was foundational for all other downstream project science. It also used DNA sequencing to produce a phylogeny for all tree species found in ecological monitoring plots and to investigate the amount of cryptic taxonomic diversity found in Caatinga plant species. In addition, through the use of Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) techniques, it has extrapolated plant species diversity data from plots to the entire study area of NE Brazil to understand the role that plant biodiversity plays in biogeochemical cycles and ecological functions across and within the dry forests of the caatinga. The original aims of the workpackage were: 1. A robust species-level plot dataset through centralised identification of all plant material across all plots. We have collected specimens of all species in all plots, including both initially identified and unidentified individuals, with the goal to have voucher specimens for every species in every plot to standardise species names across the NORDESTE dataset. The specimens have been deposited in the herbarium of the university of Feira de Santana that holds the best caatinga collection in Brazil. We have collected 1437 voucher specimens across 33 plots, and 71% of these have been identified to species. A total of fifteen new species to science have been discovered in this process, of which one (Solanum caatingae) has already been published thus far. 2. Community phylogeny of all tree species in all the super-plots By combining the c. 900 barcode sequences generated in this project with sequences available via Genbank, we have been able to expand this objective to cover far more than just the superplots. Our community phylogeny covers 6295 species with a particular focus on woody species of the Caatinga domain. This is a substantial contribution to the available genetic data on the endemic plant species of this threatened biome. Our community phylogeny is based upon the standard plastid "barcoding" markers (matK & rbcL). We adopted the approach of using existing data from Genbank for caatinga species where available and have used Sanger sequencing in the laboratories at the University of Exeter (where Toby Pennington has moved during the project period) to gather DNA sequence data for species that are not represented in Genbank. We gathered leaf material of all morphospecies from all plots and dried it in silica gel for later DNA extraction. We exported leaf samples representing 455 caatinga species to the UK in September 2019 and subsequently extracted DNA from all samples. We have now completed sequencing the DNA samples, resulting in 454 matK sequences and 459 rbcL sequences representing 415 and 424 caatinga species, respectively. We have now combined the matK and rbcL sequences produced by the project with sequences from Genbank and produced a community phylogeny with the Maximum Likelihood approach raxML. This phylogeny includes 6295 caatinga species has been published and made freely available as part of a paper that was published in 2022. 3. Estimates of cryptic species diversity within SDTF delivered through a detailed molecular phylogeographic study We aimed to understand genetic regionalisation of the caatinga woody flora because this has implications for regeneration strategies, and also to estimate undescribed species diversity in a series of species that have their distribution range spanning the major Caatinga vegetation types and that represent different plant families. Cryptic species diversity, i.e. deep molecular divergence between morphologically similar species, has been shown to be prevalent in South American dry forests based on previous studies, which in some cases has led to taxonomic re-circumscriptions. In the laboratories at RBGE and Exeter via a series of undergraduate, MSc and PhD student project and via collaborations, we have gathered data for the following species: - Tacinga inamoena (Cactaceae) - Jathropha mutabilis, J. ribifolia, J. mollissima (Euphorbiaceae) - Trischidium molle (Leguminosae) - Ceiba glaziovii, C. publiflora, C. rubriflora, C. jasminodora and C. erianthos (Malvaceae) - Coursetia rostrata, C. caatingicola, C. vicioides (Leguminosae) - Dioclea megacarpa, D. grandiflora and D. violacea (Leguminosae) - Luetzelburgia bahiensis and auriculatum (Leguminosae) - Pseudobombax marginatum and P. simplicifolium (Malvaceae) - Spondias tuberosa (Anacardiaceae) - the Chamaecrista desvauxii complex (Leguminosae) - Commiphora leptophloeous (Burseraceae) Data for Ceiba, which with its swollen, water storing trunk (locally known as "barriguda"), is one of the most charismatic elements of the caatinga flora, are from next generation hybrid capture sequence data. Sequence data for other groups has been gathered from standard Sanger-sequenced DNA barcoding markers matK and rbcL, the highly variable nuclear ribosomal ITS and other variable plastid markers as needed (e.g., ndhF-rpL32, 5'rps16-trnQ, and ndhC-trnV). The small set of markers using traditional Sanger sequencing will be adequate to compare results with previous studies of dry forest tree species, especially where these are old and with low population sizes that lead to patterns of genetic coalescence, even for populations within species. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to analyse these data in Q2 2020 as planned. We were successful in applying for a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Covid allocation (CoA) grant from the University of Exeter to employ Dr Peter Moonlight for four months. We have analysed these data in a Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood framework to produce time-calibrated phylogenies and a publication has been submitted. |
| Exploitation Route | The network of monitoring plots that we have established can become the framework for monitoring environmental changes in the caatinga in future. This is already happening, for example via a new NERC large grant project 'Resolving the Current and Future Carbon Dynamics of the Dry Tropics' (2021-2024) on which Toby Pennington is a co-I. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| Description | The economic and societal impact for this project in Brazil will arise over the long-term. The Caatinga dry forest of Northeast Brazil is home to 30 million people, many of whom live in impoverished communities. This has led to extreme degradation of the Caatinga and extensive pressure on the remaining intact forest. The consequences of this degradation for biodiversity loss, forest function, and the global carbon cycle remain poorly studied. Better understanding of the ecosystem services that the caatinga delivers, and how these will change under future climates, is therefore urgent for Brazilian society. The work carried out in the project, and the scientific capacity it has built in Brazil forms a platform from which whole-system knowledge for dry forests can be developed to inform responsible management of this unique environment, thereby addressing directly the Newton fund highlight area of Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Resilience. Our research has demonstrated that the Caatinga is a matrix of locally unique species assemblages. These results have implications for conservation and habitat restoration as they demonstrate it is important conserve representative forests across the Caatinga and that it is inappropriate to restore forests in one area of the Caatinga using a species mix from elsewhere. We also assessed the level of genetic variation in some of the Caatinga's most widespread species. Preliminary results suggest these species do not have locally specific genetic variants, which means it may not be necessary to source local genetic material of widespread species for restoration. Global climate models suggest the northeast of Brazil is likely to become hotter and drier as climates change. It is important that restoration projects consider future climatic conditions when choosing candidate species. The NordEste project has produced models for c.10k plant species, which we have used to predict each species' likely distribution under future climatic conditions. We are currently developing a Brazilian Climate Smart Restoration Portal, which will allow landowners to query which species will likely grow on their land now, by 2060, and by 2080. This will be of direct benefit to landowners and conservation organisations across Brazil. In the long-term, our work will have societal impact. Some of Brazil's poorest people depend on the caatinga and the ecosystem services that these dry forests provide. Our project provides a scientific baseline enabling prediction of the fate of these forests under climate change, and therefore the implications for local people. As our work is published, we aim to disseminate it widely to influence local and national policy for Caatinga conservation and restoration, which will be facilitated by new projects and PhD studentships that are already building on NordEste project foundations. The project trained a total of 45 Brazilian undergraduate and postgraduate students variously in forest monitoring methods, botanical survey methods, herbarium identification, and ecosystem modelling in dry biomes. The gender balance of these students was 19 female to 26 male (42% female). The project has to date published eleven scientific articles in peer reviewed journals and the gender balance of authros is 38 female to 111 male (25% female). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Economic |
| Description | BioResilience: Biodiversity resilience and ecosystem services in post-conflict socio-ecological systems in Colombia |
| Amount | £1,117,675 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/R017980/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2018 |
| End | 07/2021 |
| Description | FAPESP - Restoring Neotropical dry ecosystems - is plant functional composition the key to success? |
| Amount | £669,278 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/S000011/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 12/2022 |
| Description | Newton Fund Regional Latin America Biodiversity Programme |
| Amount | £63,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 07/2018 |
| Description | Resolving the current and future carbon dynamics of the dry tropics |
| Amount | £128,847 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/T012471/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2020 |
| End | 10/2024 |
| Description | 1. Conference, El estudio y conservación de los bosques secos de Latinoamérica, FESIztacala-UNAM, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Mexico. Opening plenary speaker: "Los trópicos secos: ciencia, conservación y restauración" ("The dry tropics: science, conservation and restoration") |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Plenary opening talk at an international online conference about tropical dry forests. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | 2. Conference, 50 years of research in the Chamela biological station Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Plenary speaker: "The dry tropics: plant diversity, biogeography and conservation". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Plenary talk in a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Chamela Biological Station (the world's leading tropical dry forest research station) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | http://www.ibiologia.unam.mx/chamela50.html |
| Description | Conference poster, Ground Penetrating Radar International Conference, Zurich Switzerland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Conference poster: Almeida ER, Porsani JL, Booth, A, Brunello AT, Sarkinen T "Analysis of GPR field parameters for root mapping in Brazil's caatinga environment." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Conference, Botany 2021. Contributed talk: Contrasting diversification histories within the Caatinga seasonally dry tropical forest diversity hotspot |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A contributed talk at the conference Botany 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | DRYFLOR network meeting, Piura, Peru |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Toby Pennington and Peter Moonlight participated in an invited workshop by the DRYFLOR network in Piura, Peru. Topics discussed included finalising the publication of the forest monitoring protocol developed by the NordEste project as a paper, in collaboration with the DRYFLOR and RainFor networks. This paper was recently submitted and includes >10 NordEste authors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | DRYFLOR network meeting, Quito, Ecuador |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Toby Pennington and Peter Moonlight participated in an invited workshop by the DRYFLOR network in Quito, Ecuador. Topics discussed included the publication of the forest monitoring protocol developed by the NordEste project as a paper, in collaboration with the DRYFLOR and RainFor networks. This paper was recently submitted and includes >10 NordEste authors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Interview with "In Defense of Plants" Podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Peter Moonlight was interviewed for the podcast "In Defense of Plants", and the episode was downloaded >30k times. A segment of the interview focused on the work and potential outcomes of the NordEste project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.indefenseofplants.com/podcast/2018/12/30/ep-193-begonias |
| Description | Invited academic seminar, Universidad del Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid "Tropical Plant Diversity, Biogeography and Conservation: a Multi Biome Approach" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited academic talk. Discussion afterwards may lead to new academic collaboration |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Invited conference talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at International Congress for Conservation Biology, Cartagena, Colombia: "Plant diversity, biogeography and conservation of neotropical seasonally dry forests" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited lecture, University of Exeter Global Challenges Symposium, "Addressing global challenges from the University of Exeter" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited lecture by Toby Pennington that shared experiences of best practice around global challenges related research. Broad themes related to building partnerships across different geographies and sectors, coupled with personal reflections on the GCRF agenda and what it has meant for your research (e.g., promoting interdisciplinarity and engagement with the humanities and social sciences). This stimulated diverse questions, especially around building sustainable partnerships and what constitutes effective capacity building in the global south. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited opening seminar, V Simpósio de Ecologia e Sustentabilidade [5th symposium of ecology and sustainability], Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros: "Os trópicos secos: ciência, conservação e restauração" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Online seminar followed by "round table" Q&A for an hour, all in Portuguese. The aim was to raise awareness of the importance of science and conservation in the dry biomes of the tropics and the challenges of restoring them. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited plenary address, Sympsoium "Los bosques secos latinoamericanos: entenderlos para conservarlos" (Latin American dry forests - understanding for conservation", University of Piura, Peru |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk by Toby Pennington, "Los trópicos secos: ciencia, conservación y restauración" (The dry tropics, conservation and restoration) to a mostly Peruvian audience, but also international participants. The goal was to increase awareness of the importance of conservation and restoration in the dry tropics. Questions focused on the viability of restoration. There was a subsequent interview based on the presentation (see url) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://udep.edu.pe/hoy/2019/las-personas-deben-conocer-los-bosques-secos-para-que-puedan-cuidarlos/ |
| Description | Invited plenary talk, Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (STDF ) in Northeastern Brazil symposium, Fortaleza, Brazil |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited plenary talk, "Seasonally dry biomes: a global and Latin American view". The goal was to raise awareness of the importance of dry biomes in the tropics for biodiversity and ecosystem services. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited presentation, Latin American Botanical Congress, Quito, Ecuador: "Greater spatial turnover in species composition in tropical dry forests than tropical savannas" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation, allowing presentation of outcomes from three NERC funded grants. The major impact was increasing the size of the collaborative network that is now monitoring forests beyond Amazonia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited presentation, Plants, People, Planet Symposium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation "The dry tropics: science, conservation and restoration". This generated considerable questions and discussions, especially around the validity of planting trees in the dry tropics as a means of C sequestration. The talk is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYagysOIvT8 so can potentially reach a very borad audience |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYagysOIvT8 |
| Description | Invited presentation, Sympsoium "Los bosques secos latinoamericanos: entenderlos para conservarlos" (Latin American dry forests - understanding for conservation", University of Piura, Peru |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk by Peter Moonlight, "Grupos de interes: Begonias" (Groups of Interest: Dry Forest Begonias) to a mostly Peruvian audience, but also international participants. The goal was to increase awareness of the the diversity of plant groups found within the dry tropics, and the mechanisms by which they have evolved to live there. Questions focused on the viability of restoration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited presentation, Sympsoium "Systematics for Conservation", Systematics Association Biennial, Bristol, UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A presentation by Peter Moonlight titled "using species distribution models to define conservation units". The goal was to increase awareness of the diverse and highly-effective ways systematists can interface with and provide data for third parties working in conservation. This was followed by a short panel discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited presentation, WWF UK, "Why is the cerrado amazing?" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof Toby Pennington was invited to speak to WWF UK at their headquarters in Woking. They are initiating a major campaign on conservation of the savannas of the Brazilian cerrado in 2019, and wish to link this to ongoing science in this biome. This was a great opportunity to develop plans to increase future impact of NERC funded research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited public event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interactive discussion about the environmental costs of soy cultivation in the tropics as part of the Power of Food Festival, Edinburgh: "The real price of food" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://poweroffoodfestival.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | Invited seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited seminar, Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, "Maximising synergy between systematics and ecology in the tropics via long-term monitoring plots" (given in Portuguese) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited seminat, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, "A diversidade florística, biogeografía filogenética e conservação das florestas estacionalmente secas neotropicais (SDTF)" (given in Portuguese) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited seminar, University of Exeter, "Tropical plant diversity: 19th- 21st century approaches to biogeography and conservation" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited seminar [online], Círculo de Investigación de Bosques Secos del Perú [Society for Investigation of Peruvian Dry Forest], Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, "Los trópicos secos: ciencia, conservación y restauración" (The dry tropics, science, conservation and restoration) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Online seminar followed by hour long Q&A (all in Spanish). This focused on raising the profile of science and conservation in the dry tropics, and how we might restored degraded areas. The reach of the event was amazing - almost 300 attendees from across Latin America (mostly Peru and Andean countries) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited seminar, German Institute for Integrative Biodviersity Research iDiv (Leipzig): "Tropical dry forests and savannas: diversity, biogeography and conservation" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited seminar that aimed to raise awareness of science, conservation and sustainable us of seasonally dry biomes in the tropics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited seminar, University of Montreal and Montreal Botanical Garden, "Tropical dry forests and savannas: diversity, biogeography and conservation" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited academic seminar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited seminar, University of Oxford: "Tropical Plant Diversity and Conservation: a multibiome approach" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research seminar, both in person and online with considerable discussion afterwards about importance of non-rain forest biomes |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.tropicalforests.ox.ac.uk/event/toby-pennington/ |
| Description | Invited talk, VAluing biodiversity and developing ecosystem service delivery models in densely inhabited Latin American dry and montane forests workshop, Lima, Peru, July 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited workshop talk, "Forest Plot networks in seasonally dry forests in Brazil". The aim of this Newton Funded workshop was to build a new collaborative network across Latin America to value biodviersity and ecosystem services in neglected ecosystems such as dry forests, the focus of our original grant. The main outcome in the long term will be a larger network that can deliver more ambitious projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Media intervew: Radio 5 Live and "In Short" podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Media interview covering the potential problems in tree planting as a climate change solution, especially in dry biomes of the tropics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/short/why-planting-trees-isnt-always-good-idea |
| Description | Public Lecure, Royal Geographical Society with IBG, University of Exeter, "The forgotten forests of Latin America" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited public talk by Toby Pennington that aimed to raise public awareness of the conservation importance and plight of tropical dry forests. Numerous questions afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Species Distribution Modelling Workshop, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited workshop by Peter Moonlight on the uses of Species Distribution Modelling in Systematics and Conservation for the postgraduate program at the State University of Feira de Santana. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Student Training in Botanical Collection for Forest Plot Inventories |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Training provided to 5 Brazilian undergraduate and postgraduate students in botanical collection for permanent forest plot networks by Peter Moonlight, Tiina Sarkinen and Toby Pennington. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| Description | University of Exeter Ecology Group Talk Series: Contrasting diversification histories within the Caatinga seasonally dry tropical forest diversity hotspot |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A talk and discussion at the University of Exeter's regular Ecology Group talk series. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |