Learning to adapt to an uncertain future: linking genes, trees, people and processes for more resilient treescapes (newLEAF)

Lead Research Organisation: Robert Gordon University
Department Name: Gray's School of Art

Abstract

This proposal addresses Theme 3: Resilience of UK Treescapes to global change.

Treescapes - our woodlands, our forests, our urban trees - are critical to our environment, our health and well-being and our ability to transition to a zero carbon economy via plans to substantially increase tree numbers in the landscape. However, climate change and increasing risks from pests and disease threaten the UK treescape like never before. This future is uncertain but we do know that our treescapes must change to survive and thrive. Although we may see treescapes as permanent or fixed, in truth they have an amazing capacity to be dynamic and shift on timescales that are relevant to human lifespans. Indeed, it is often only human interventions that have prevented populations from changing and adapting. For example, where uncontrolled grazing is allowed, little or no regeneration occurs and there is no opportunity for new genetic diversity to enter the population and for the population to adapt. For treescapes to be resilient, change is essential, but this can take many forms - from low intervention, allowing regeneration but taking little other action, to highly managed situations like production forestry, where deliberate choices can be taken to deploy particular genotypes to track environmental shifts. To understand, live with and shape change within treescapes, we must first learn from how treescapes have changed in the past, then quantify how much potential they have to change in the future, and finally develop ways of building change into our treescapes and the ways we interact with them.

This proposal outlines newLEAF, a project to evaluate options for using the extensive natural genetic variation within tree species to keep pace with expected changes in climate and the biotic (pest & disease) environment. Firstly, we will learn from the past 100 years of treescape management in the UK, bringing together historical information on policy and practice with data on changing tree populations on the ground to understand the link between choices made at a policy level and the outcomes for treescape resilience. Then we will quantify the rate of adaptation that can be achieved by both natural and human selection in key tree species for the UK, focusing on traits linked to fitness in forecasted environments and susceptibility to pests and pathogens. We will compare the impacts that natural regeneration versus planting has on the development of biotic communities associated with trees, particularly fungi and insect vectors with the potential to mediate risk.

Drawing directly from the experimental work, we will design models incorporating data on trait variability and will evaluate how internal adaptability within tree species can be used, in varying compositions, configurations and under different management regimes, to generate diverse and dynamic treescapes with an in-built capability to track environmental changes, even when that change is uncertain. We will test tools and strategies to minimise risk from pests and pathogens, especially those associated with planned increases in tree numbers in the landscape, learning from the interactions between our set of focal species and their associated communities. Working with stakeholders, we will explore the social and economic drivers that can be deployed to effect change in the landscape, learning from historical environmental policies and their outcomes in the UK and from key case studies in similar systems across Europe. A particular focus will be on people engaging with the concepts of uncertainty, dynamism and change, studying new ways to integrate science and the arts and creating new works framed around these ideas. Bringing together this diverse and multidisciplinary team, we will produce new research, guidance, policy recommendations, art and science-based tools that will advance the cause of resilience in the UK's future treescape.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description New Leaves Network
Amount £19,979 (GBP)
Funding ID 2966 
Organisation Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2023 
End 04/2025
 
Description Article on Culture and Climate Adaptation published in Yale Climate Connections 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Co-authored article informed by the newLEAF project and drawing on previous research into the relationship between culture and climate adaptation. The article highlights the role of arts and culture in climate adaptation particularly in relation to nature-based solutions. It profiles the evaluation of Creative Carbon Scotland's Climate Adapation project funded by Creative Europe. It was published during COP26.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/11/a-just-climate-change-adaptation-needs-arts-and-culture/
 
Description Keynote Lecture to Working Group on 'Listening to the Web of Life' for Getty Institute's 'Pacific Standard Time' initiative 
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 keynote presentation to invited seminar on developing 'Listening to the Web of LIfe' preparing for major 4 venue exhibition of Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison (b. 1932) California works (1970 to the present) which forms a key part of the Getty Institute's Pacific Standard Time initiative presented in 2024. This contribution will feed into the exhibition catalogue and symposium
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Speaking at Tree Stakeholder Workshop for Bacterial Plant Disease research programme 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Contributing a provocation vision for trees in the UK's future as part of a Stakeholder engagement event for the Bacterial Plant Diseases programme. The provocation drew on the work of artist David Nash and his articulation of his process as a sculptor working with living and dying trees.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://bacterialplantdiseases.uk/event/bacterial-disease-of-trees-stakeholder-workshop/
 
Description Stolen Climate 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In conversation with commissioned artist and researchers from the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society. Interviewing Clinton Naina, Torres Islander and artist about his work Stolen Climate, purchased by Leverhulme Centre. Opening up issues of research with inhabitants drawing on approaches demonstrated by other artists.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://centreforwildfires.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Stolen-Climate-Event-Draft-Agenda-15.2.pdf
 
Description newLEAF events at Edinburgh International Science Festival 
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 A walk through Edinburgh's Meadows to discuss and connect with trees. Suitable for families. Slow walk/meander.
Bringing together arts and sciences, we will take the Walking Library - a library filled with books good to take for a walk -- to visit specific, significant trees in Edinburgh's Meadows. We will share and discuss what we know about diversity in trees from different perspectives, drawing on literature and the sciences, and considering the challenges trees face in the future. These walks will inspire and inform, and challenge us to consider what we do and don't know.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description newLEAF events at Timberfest 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Proposal to deliver Walking Forest events at Timberfest
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023