NSFDEB-NERC: Gigante: Quantifying and upscaling the causes and drivers of death for giant tropical trees

Lead Research Organisation: University of Birmingham
Department Name: Sch of Geography, Earth & Env Sciences

Abstract

The land carbon sink depends on the persistence of giant tropical trees. The largest 1% of trees store half the carbon in tropical forests and their deaths release this carbon back to the atmosphere, but we do not know what kills these trees because their deaths are rarely described. A novel sampling strategy is needed to effectively monitor the life and death of giant tropical trees. Gigante will integrate remote sensing and frequent field surveys to answer: (1) What kills giant trees and how do their mortality rates vary over space and time? (2) What are the risk factors underlying variation in giant tree mortality rates? and (3) How does giant tree mortality risk influence pantropical carbon stocks?
We will locate giant tree mortality events using multi-platform, high-frequency remote sensing of 7,500 ha across five tropical forest super sites. These data will facilitate targeted field surveys using detailed state-of-the art protocols to assign proximate agents of mortality to recently dead trees in an unprecedently large field study. We will integrate these data with information about climate, topography, canopy structure, and tree traits to validate mechanistic models of tree mortality risk. Finally, combining these risk models with forest plots and satellite LiDAR, we will evaluate how drivers of giant tree death predict spatial variation in forest dynamics, structure, and carbon storage. The validation of geospatial relationships will allow us estimate the contributions of giant tree mortality to pantropical forest carbon stocks.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Title Developed of protocol on how to train the field team. 
Description Vanessa Rubio with support from Adriane Esquivel Muelbert and Evan Gora, developed of protocol for training the field team. This protocol uses our experience training field assistants and aims to facilitate further training in other sites and by other ECR performing a leading role for the first time. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Better communication and standardisation of methods within the team. Empowerment of postdocs. 
 
Title Developed protocol for drone flights using Trinity Pro. 
Description Developed protocol for drone flights using Trinity Pro. Protocol has been used across sites and for capacity building. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Better communication and standardisation of methods within the team. 
 
Title Development and implementation of drone flight protocol at the Panama site (BCI) 
Description Development and implementation of drone flight protocol at the Panama site (BCI). The protocol is now being used in all the other sites and for capacity building purposes too. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Better communication and standardisation of methods within the team. 
 
Title Field tree forensics protocol 
Description Vanessa Rubio developed novel field tree forensics field protocol to identify proximate causes of giant tree mortality and evaluate forests gaps after disturbance. This protocol has been developed in the Panama site and has already been tested and implemented at this field site. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Better communication and standardisation of methods within the team. Protocol to be published soon as part of a methods paper to help other research teams identifying causes of tree death. 
 
Title Heart rot field protocol 
Description Vanessa Rubio, Gustavo Lemes and Gisele Mori developmented a heart rot field protocol to identify heart rot in dead giant trees to inform the data from the tree forensics protocol. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Better communication and standardisation of methods within the team. Protocol to be shared with other research team using the resistograph. 
 
Title Pipeline for analysing drone imagery to produce orthomosaics 
Description Ian McGregor designed a pipeline for analysing drone imagery to produce orthomosaics (colour images of large forest areas at high resolution) and three-dimensional forest canopy, align this imagery over time, and locate tree damage and death events. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We can now produce orthomosaics (colour images of large forest areas at high resolution) and three-dimensional forest canopy, align this imagery over time, and locate tree damage and death events. 
 
Title Dataset on tree damage and mortality 
Description Unpublished datasets on tree damage and mortality. This includes first drone-based detections and then the ground-level data on tree mortality, biomass carbon mortality, mode of death, and various risk factors Already being collected for a year in Panama and collection is ongoing at 3 other sites with the 5th to begin this month. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact not yet detectable 
 
Title Giant tree distribution in Nova Xavantina and Manaus 
Description Evan Gora, Adriane Esquivel Muelbert and Gustavo Lemes generated a database of Giant tree distribution in Nova Xavantina and Manaus with information of species identification, crown condition and liana infestation. This database will allow us to understand the variation of giant tree distribution across water availability and proximity to the forest edge. 
Type Of Material Data analysis technique 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Gustavo Lemes (PhD student) is using this database for his first PhD chapter. 
 
Title Novel database on forest demography 
Description Largest database on forest demography for any single forest site, with 9.2 million records of tree survival or death across 128 ha with up to 40 years of monitoring. 
Type Of Material Data analysis technique 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact This will allow for investigation on the key and undervalued importance of long-lived giant trees to tropical forest function. We have a working paper on this at the moment led by the Cary-based postdoc Vanessa Rubio. 
 
Description Adi Shabrani | Manager, Wildlife Atlas of Sabah | WWF-Malaysia 
Organisation Sabah Wildlife Department
Country Malaysia 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Monitoring forests at such a large scale presents challenges, mainly due to the labor-intensive nature of traditional field methods, which can limit data availability. In this collaboration we use the advancements in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), developed as part of Gigante to allow for robust data collection at landscape-level while being cost effective. UAVs, in particular, offer high-resolution, cloud-free data, addressing the limitations of satellite imagery. These technologies are essential for monitoring tree dynamics, climate-related changes, and wildlife interactions, such as monitoring orangutan nests, providing a more efficient, large scale approach to ecological research and conservation management. Hence, WWF-Malaysia collaborates with the Gigante project aiming to deepen the understanding of tropical habitat resilience, especially on natural maintenance processes. The project focuses on collaborative, landscape-scale data collection and interpretation to support Sabah's forestry and wildlife management practices using UAV.
Collaborator Contribution A key component of this initiative is studying habitat dynamics in the Danum Valley Conservation Area (DVCA), an intact primary forest that is home to significant wildlife populations. Adi Shabrani and WWF Malaysia will be using the research infrastructure of Gigante to monitor fruit production and wildlife at the landscape level. This information will then be used for the purpose of conservation-management of DVCA.
Impact No outputs yet.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Dr Flavia Costa, INPA 
Organisation National Institute of Amazonian Research
Country Brazil 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Continued collaboration with Flavia Costa, including co-authoring a funding proposal to Brazilian government that was funded to support hydraulic trait measurements
Collaborator Contribution Wrote proposal to understand the hydraulic of giant trees. Recruited a PhD student to work support ground work in Brazil.
Impact To early to report
Start Year 2023
 
Description Drew Peltier 
Organisation University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Gigante team will provide location of dead trees and timing of death. We will further facilitate collaboration within Brazil.
Collaborator Contribution Drew will be measuring the carbon isotopes in new branches from heavily damaged giant trees in an effort to quantify the age of non-structural carbohydrates in large old trees.
Impact No output yet.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Elia Goodong 
Organisation University of Malaysia
Country Malaysia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We provided building capacity by training the field team in collecting tree mortality variables and by training the team in flying the drones to collect landscape-scale data.
Collaborator Contribution Elia Goodong from the University of Malaysia Sabah helped with the implementation of the Malaysian field campaign, by providing authorisation to undertake work in Danum Valley. Provided logistics and instructions on how to navigate Malaysian fieldwork.
Impact Gained access to Danum Valley Support of a local collaborator in Sabah Legal documents support to gain research passes.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Elsa Ordway UCLA 
Organisation University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Develop collaboration with Elsa Ordway (UCLA) to implement a new Gigante field site in Cameroon.
Collaborator Contribution Elsa is collaborating with our team to help implementing the field site in Cameroon.
Impact First field campaign undergoing in Cameroon.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Etienne Laliberte 
Organisation University of Montreal
Country Canada 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are working with Etienne's group by providing drone imagery and providing species labels to inform the AI species identification. We are providing the images generated by Gigante to allow Etienne's team to test and calibrate their crown segmentation algorithm so that can be expanded in other forest. We are also arranging the logistics so that Etienne's team can work identifying the species of different crowns within our data.
Collaborator Contribution Etienne is leading the remote sensing component of an XPrize-funded project that is developing methods for identifying individual tree crowns and the species of these trees using high-resolution drone imagery.
Impact No outputs yet.
Start Year 2025
 
Description Helene Muller-Landau and Stuart Davies (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) 
Organisation Smithsonian Institution
Department Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Country Panama 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaboration to coordinate of LiDAR flights across our study area in Panama in mid-2023, this will help to create baseline for structural changes across the forest.
Collaborator Contribution Helene Muller-Landau (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute), Stuart Davies (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) will be providing data from the prior LiDAR flights.
Impact To early to report
Start Year 2023
 
Description Jedediah Brodie (University of Montana) 
Organisation University of Montana
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provide access to drone images for phenology monitoring.
Collaborator Contribution Advances on the permit stage in Malaysia and potentially sharing drone permit in country.
Impact Coordination of drone permits in Malaysia
Start Year 2024
 
Description Nicolas Barbier and Pierre Ploton (IRD, France) 
Organisation Institute of Development Research (IRD)
Country France 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Develop collaboration to implement field site in the Dja Reserve in Camaroon.
Collaborator Contribution Internal information about Dja Reserve in Camaroon and access to in-country collaborations.
Impact Advances developing collaborations in the Dja Reserve in Camaroon, moved field site to Carmaroon as part of this collaboration.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Phillip Bitzer and Jeffrey Burchfield (both of The University of Alabama in Huntsville) 
Organisation University of Alabama in Huntsville
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaboration to locate lightning strikes and their intensity across our study site in Panama
Collaborator Contribution Develop of parallel proposal and working together with on novel techniques to detecting lightning strikes.
Impact To early to report
Start Year 2024
 
Description Polyanna Bispo 
Organisation University of Manchester
Department School of Environment, Education and Development
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We will be proving Gigante imagery and mortality attribution for Pollyana's project.
Collaborator Contribution Pollyana plans to use Gigante data to calibrate Remote Sensing products focusing on wind events. Pollyana is the PI of an ERC consolidator grant that has just been submitted with Gigante as a partner.
Impact No outputs yet
Start Year 2024
 
Description Prof Beatriz Marimon (UNEMAT) 
Organisation UNEMAT - Nova Xavantina
Country Brazil 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Developed collaboration with Prof Beatriz Marimon to hire staff, coordinate foreign field research, and lay the groundwork for our first field campaign in the Southern Amazon.
Collaborator Contribution Help formalising agreements with UNEMAT, provided insight knowledge at the Nova Xavantina site.
Impact Hire staff in Nova Xavantina fieldsite and recruited a new PhD student (Gustavo Lemes) based at UNEMAT. Set up the Nova Xavantina site.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Prof David Galbraith and Emmanuel Gloor (University of Leeds) 
Organisation University of Leeds
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaboration in the site in Southern Amazonia to facilitate data collection and scientific outputs related to questions in the region.
Collaborator Contribution Helpoing to hire staff, coordinate foreign field research, and lay the groundwork for our first field campaign in the southern Amazon
Impact Have recruited a PhD student, Gustavo Lemes to work on location-related questions.
Start Year 2023
 
Description SEARRP (Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Partnership) to coordinate the logistics for field data 
Organisation South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP)
Country Malaysia 
Sector Multiple 
PI Contribution Partnered with SEARRP (Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Partnership) to coordinate the logistics for field data collection and drone flights at the Danum Valley Conservation Area. We provided building capacity by training the field team in collecting tree mortality variables and by training the team in flying the drones to collect landscape-scale data.
Collaborator Contribution SEARRP coordinated the logistics for field data collection and drone flights at the Danum Valley Conservation Area
Impact SEARRP (Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Partnership) to help with getting permission for the Sabah forestry department. SEARRP aided logistic for Filed work SEARRP provided research assistants.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Samuli Junttila 
Organisation University of Eastern Finland
Country Finland 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Gigante is providing imagery and mortality attribution to Samuli's project.
Collaborator Contribution Samuli is tasking high-resolution satellite imagery (0.5x0.5m pixels) of our field sites each month from Planet SkySat. We plan to use these data to test whether mortality events are detectable and quantifiable using this type of satellite imagery. Samuli plans to integrate these data into his effort to track drought-caused mortality globally
Impact no outputs yet
Start Year 2024
 
Description Shafrina Wan (University of Malaysia) 
Organisation National University of Malaysia
Country Malaysia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Implementation of the Malaysia field campaign to maximise the outputs from data collection and facilitate logistics on the ground. Early collaboration with Adriane Esquivel Muelbert and Evan Gora.
Collaborator Contribution Internal information about general research in Danum Valley and Malaysia and access to in-country collaborations.
Impact Advances on the permit stage in Malaysia.
Start Year 2024
 
Description Article by journalist Ellyn Lapointe 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Ellyn already put an article together based on work in Panama for the Smithsonian Magazine
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-are-giant-ancient-tropical-trees-dying-18...
 
Description Cosmo Club in New York City, USA 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Evan Gora was the speaker at an event in the Cosmo Club in New York City that supports conservation and research efforts
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description EcoCamp 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Evan Gora attended the Cary Institute EcoCamp (15 elementary students in 6-8th grade) to teach them about our research and the use of drones in ecology
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Ecological Society of America (ESA) meeting, USA 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Evan Gora attended ESA and presented: The case for storms as a major agent of climate-driven
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Interview for Casa e Jardim. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Gisele More gave an interview where she explained the Gigante Project, discussing why we study giant trees, the methods we use, and the challenges we face. The goal was to communicate the importance of this research to a broader audience and raise awareness about giant trees' ecological roles and conservation needs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://revistacasaejardim.globo.com/um-so-planeta/noticia/2024/09/arvores-tropicais-gigantes-estao-...
 
Description Interview for Ecoa 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Gisele provided a reporter with information on how giant trees contribute to carbon sequestration for a report she was writing, ensuring accurate scientific insights.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.uol.com.br/ecoa/ultimas-noticias/2024/11/22/ventos-extremos-derrubam-arvores-gigantes-e-...
 
Description Interview on Kingston Radio in New York. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Evan Gora gave an interview on the Nature Nuggets show broadcast on Kingston Radio in New York.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description James Cook University students 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Vanessa Rubio gave a presentation to a group of undergraduate students from the James Cook University, Australia to show them the project going on in Danum Valley, Malaysia on Dec 2, 2024. Following this talk they spent the day in the forest discussing the project and learning how to identify forest disturbances and collect data.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Mongabay story on Giant trees 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Mongabay page featuring the Gigante project and the team.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/are-the-amazons-biggest-trees-dying-forest-coroners-investigate/
 
Description New Phytologist Next Generation Scientists meeting, Duke, NC, USA 
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 Postdoc Vanessa Rubio attended the New Phytologist Next Generation Scientists meeting (June 5-8 of 2024 in Duke, NC, USA) to present the results of the paper The key and undervalued importance of long-lived giant trees to tropical forest function. She won the best poster presentation award.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Talk at INPA, Brazil 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Vanessa Rubio gave a talk at INPA (May 2024) titled Dinámica de Bosques a través de grupos funcionales y árboles gigantes. Manaus, Brasil.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Talk at UNEMAT, Brazil 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert and Gisele Biem Mori gave a talk at UNEMAT (September 2024) titled Entendo as árvores gigantes nos trópicos. Nova Xavantina, Brazil.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description The radio story on the Pulse which is a science radio show broadcast on US National Public Radio 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Dan Grossman published a radio story, including interviews with Adriane and Evan, on The Pulse which is a science radio show broadcast on US National Public Radio
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Videos for School children 
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 Adriane Esquivel Muelbert made a series of videos and 360o images during several field campaigns. These now integrate educational material for school children in the UK, Dubai, US and Brazil.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://canvas.bham.ac.uk/courses/52405/pages/welcome