Expires on: 01/10/2024
Description
Forests are critical to the realisation of UK net-zero ambitions through carbon sequestration. However, these valuable ecosystems can suffer from catastrophic forest damage and disturbances, exacerbated by the increasing impacts from compound climate events in a changing climate. This can have a significant impact on ecosystem services, such as water filtration, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat. As our climate changes, the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as droughts, storms, heat waves and their joint occurrences (IPCC 2021), threatens forests profoundly.
This PhD project aims to advance our understanding of forest disturbances and their association with compound extreme weather events, focusing on forest margins as biodiversity hotspots. The successful candidate will use open and proprietary Earth observation (EO) data, including airborne remote sensing and machine learning techniques, to detect and monitor forest damage. The project will explore the potential climate drivers, including both singular and interlinked extremes, that contribute to these disturbances. It will also use models such as ForestGALES and 3PG-SoNWaL to predict the risk impacts on forest function, including wind risk and climate impacts on productivity.
This research has the potential to provide valuable insights for informed stand-level management decisions in the productive forestry sector, in light of future climate shifts.
Fields
- Forestry
- Plant Science
Qualifications
- Bachelor
- Master