Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery
The ongoing loss and degradation of nature and its biodiversity are amongst the greatest challenges of our time. These trends, driven by increasing but unequal societal demand for food and other ecosystem goods and services, are already having tangible consequences both for the intrinsic fabric of the natural world and the climate system, as well as for human well-being and societal integrity.
The new Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, based at the University of Oxford will tackle the challenge of halting and reversing this loss of biodiversity by addressing the ecological, social, cultural and economic dimensions of nature recovery in a single framework, harnessing state-of-the-art technologies and thereby developing and testing an innovative model to deliver nature recovery at scale.
Acting as a hub for innovative thinking, discussion and analysis of nature recovery nationally and worldwide, the Centre will unite leading researchers from a wide range of disciplines across the University, its interdisciplinary approach bringing together expertise from geography, ecology, social science, finance, economics, psychiatry, anthropology, artificial intelligence, statistics and earth observation, to collaborate on a range of projects in conjunction with national and international partners.
Successful nature recovery requires the full engagement and support of local communities, appropriate local governance and clear articulation of financial costs and benefits. It necessitates not only an understanding of ecology and land use, but also understanding and allowing for local land rights as well as cultural, social, food provision, health and wellbeing, and the economic values of landscapes. The Centre aims to incorporate these multiple dimensions into a single framework for developing scenarios and strategies for nature recovery.
The new Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, based at the University of Oxford will tackle the challenge of halting and reversing this loss of biodiversity by addressing the ecological, social, cultural and economic dimensions of nature recovery in a single framework, harnessing state-of-the-art technologies and thereby developing and testing an innovative model to deliver nature recovery at scale.
Acting as a hub for innovative thinking, discussion and analysis of nature recovery nationally and worldwide, the Centre will unite leading researchers from a wide range of disciplines across the University, its interdisciplinary approach bringing together expertise from geography, ecology, social science, finance, economics, psychiatry, anthropology, artificial intelligence, statistics and earth observation, to collaborate on a range of projects in conjunction with national and international partners.
Successful nature recovery requires the full engagement and support of local communities, appropriate local governance and clear articulation of financial costs and benefits. It necessitates not only an understanding of ecology and land use, but also understanding and allowing for local land rights as well as cultural, social, food provision, health and wellbeing, and the economic values of landscapes. The Centre aims to incorporate these multiple dimensions into a single framework for developing scenarios and strategies for nature recovery.
GEM
The Global Ecosystem Monitoring network (GEM) is an international effort to measure and understand forest ecosystem functions and traits, and how these will respond to climate change. The GEM network aims to capture both ecosystem-level properties and the functional composition of the community.
The GEM network encompasses many separately-funded projects, including projects in the Amazon-Andes, in West and Central Africa, and in Malaysia. We are also looking to incorporate new partners and plots into the network, such as in Belize, Hawaii and China.
The GEM network encompasses many separately-funded projects, including projects in the Amazon-Andes, in West and Central Africa, and in Malaysia. We are also looking to incorporate new partners and plots into the network, such as in Belize, Hawaii and China.
Healthy Ecosystem Restoration in Oxfordshire (HERO)
HERO is a three year programme (in the first instance) supported by the Oxford Martin School, under their new Programme on Biodiversity and Society. HERO will explore how Oxford University can play a role in efforts to restore healthy ecosystems in Oxfordshire, by bringing the university’s strengths in academic knowledge, research capacity and convening power to support ongoing and planned nature recovery activities by a range of local partners and stakeholders. We are working with organisations from around Oxfordshire to maximise the potential for demonstration and research of HERO.
With its active network of nature recovery groups, Oxfordshire presents a unique opportunity to test and showcase a portfolio of different ecosystem restoration strategies, to become a model county for nature recovery. HERO aims to build a community of practice between the University and local practitioners, and will also form a resource for the University and its constituent Colleges within broader institutional sustainability goals.
With its active network of nature recovery groups, Oxfordshire presents a unique opportunity to test and showcase a portfolio of different ecosystem restoration strategies, to become a model county for nature recovery. HERO aims to build a community of practice between the University and local practitioners, and will also form a resource for the University and its constituent Colleges within broader institutional sustainability goals.
Bertarelli Marine Science Project Implications of nutrient flow and feedbacks across the seabird-island-reef system
Seabirds are important vectors of nutrients on islands, feeding out in the open ocean and transporting fish-based nutrients onto land. These nutrient subsidies have been shown to increase vegetation productivity and invertebrate abundance on tropical islands, and run-off into
surrounding coral reefs to enhance fish biomass and coral reef productivity. With introduced pests, such as rats, having decimated seabird populations on 90% of the world’s islands, the potential for pest eradication and island ecosystem conservation has gathered momentum.
This is a joint project between Oxford, Exeter and Lancaster University, and aims to quantify the benefit of seabird-derived nutrients to tropical island forest and marine ecosystems. Our study
sites incorporate islands with recent and ongoing rat eradication programs across the Chagos
Archipelago, Seychelles and French Polynesia. The project works with partner organisations in
these regions to support local tropical island conservation and restoration.
The project has three aims. To quantify the influence of seabird nutrient subsidies on 1) island ecology and biogeochemical cycling, 2) coral reef spatial nutrient patterns, trophic propagation, and recovery trajectories, and 3) reef growth and island sediment supply critical to mitigating the impacts of sea-level rise.
The project also has a large remote sensing component, using multispectral drone and satellite imagery to scale up field measurements and produce land-to- seascape maps of nutrient patterns and ecosystem productivity.
surrounding coral reefs to enhance fish biomass and coral reef productivity. With introduced pests, such as rats, having decimated seabird populations on 90% of the world’s islands, the potential for pest eradication and island ecosystem conservation has gathered momentum.
This is a joint project between Oxford, Exeter and Lancaster University, and aims to quantify the benefit of seabird-derived nutrients to tropical island forest and marine ecosystems. Our study
sites incorporate islands with recent and ongoing rat eradication programs across the Chagos
Archipelago, Seychelles and French Polynesia. The project works with partner organisations in
these regions to support local tropical island conservation and restoration.
The project has three aims. To quantify the influence of seabird nutrient subsidies on 1) island ecology and biogeochemical cycling, 2) coral reef spatial nutrient patterns, trophic propagation, and recovery trajectories, and 3) reef growth and island sediment supply critical to mitigating the impacts of sea-level rise.
The project also has a large remote sensing component, using multispectral drone and satellite imagery to scale up field measurements and produce land-to- seascape maps of nutrient patterns and ecosystem productivity.
The multi-trophic impact of ash dieback
Ash dieback is a fungal pathogen that has a detrimental effect on the European ash tree(Fraxinus excelsior) causing mortality rates up to 90% in the first 10 years of infection. Multi-Trophic Wytham is a NERC funded project examining the multi-trophic impact of ashdieback in Wytham Woods, a maritime woodland outside Oxford, southern UK. It is aninterdisciplinary collaboration that incorporates expertise from departments acrossthe University of Oxford (School of Geography and the Environment, Department of Zoology,Department of Plant Sciences, and WildCRU) and further afield (CEH Wallingford,University College London). The project has been organised into three overarching topics that provide a wider conceptual ecological framework around ecosystem response to extensive tree mortality beyond the specific case of ash dieback including (a) biochemical cycling, (b) vegetation structure and predation pressure, and (c) woodland connectivity. We will track the shifting ecosystem ecology under natural progression of the mortality event and also conduct manipulations of “accelerated ash dieback” to gain insights into longer-term dynamics, using ring-barking. This ambitious project will result in a novel multi-trophic understanding of the impacts of pathogen-induced mass tree mortality, providing better understanding of processes that are applicable to managing and mitigating the ecological consequences of tree dieback events more generally.Ash dieback is a fungal pathogen that has a detrimental effect on the European ash tree(Fraxinus excelsior) causing mortality rates up to 90% in the first 10 years of infection. Multi-Trophic Wytham is a NERC funded project examining the multi-trophic impact of ashdieback in Wytham Woods, a maritime woodland outside Oxford, southern UK. It is aninterdisciplinary collaboration that incorporates expertise from departments acrossthe University of Oxford (School of Geography and the Environment, Department of Zoology,Department of Plant Sciences, and WildCRU) and further afield (CEH Wallingford,University College London). The project has been organised into three overarching topics that provide a wider conceptual ecological framework around ecosystem response to extensive tree mortality beyond the specific case of ash dieback including (a) biochemical cycling, (b) vegetation structure and predation pressure, and (c) woodland connectivity. We will track the shifting ecosystem ecology under natural progression of the mortality event and also conduct manipulations of “accelerated ash dieback” to gain insights into longer-term dynamics, using ring-barking. This ambitious project will result in a novel multi-trophic understanding of the impacts of pathogen-induced mass tree mortality, providing better understanding of processes that are applicable to managing and mitigating the ecological consequences of tree dieback events more generally.
DIEBACK - Evaluating fire-induced impacts on tree dieback and carbon fluxes in human-modified Amazonian forests
Wildfires have become the new norm in many parts of the Amazonian humid forest, an ecosystem
that did not co-evolve with this stressor. Large areas of previously undisturbed and human-modified forests are catching fire, jeopardizing the future of the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest in the world. Despite the growing prevalence of Amazonian wildfires, we still have a very limited
understanding of why these low intensity understorey fires cause very high rates of tree mortality,
which species functional traits predict vulnerability or survival to these fires, what are the impacts of wildfires on the forest carbon balance and what are the patterns of taxonomic and functional recovery following a fire event. We propose a research plan to achieve major advances in our understanding of such wildfire impacts, including of the underlying mechanisms that cause both short-term and longer-term tree mortality.
We will achieve this by combining a state-of-the-art forest burn experiment with continued monitoring of a unique set of long-term sampling plots, some of which we have tracked through a 2015-16 wildfire event associated with a strong El Niño. We are uniquely placed to address these fundamental questions given our network of burned and unburned forest plots that is already in place, and the numerous past datasets that we can use as baseline information. As well as advancing scientific knowledge about a pervasive and increasing threat to the future of tropical forests in the Anthropocene, our co-designed pathways to impact ensures we will also inform and improve approaches to minimise risk of fire-induced dieback of humid Amazonian forests.
that did not co-evolve with this stressor. Large areas of previously undisturbed and human-modified forests are catching fire, jeopardizing the future of the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest in the world. Despite the growing prevalence of Amazonian wildfires, we still have a very limited
understanding of why these low intensity understorey fires cause very high rates of tree mortality,
which species functional traits predict vulnerability or survival to these fires, what are the impacts of wildfires on the forest carbon balance and what are the patterns of taxonomic and functional recovery following a fire event. We propose a research plan to achieve major advances in our understanding of such wildfire impacts, including of the underlying mechanisms that cause both short-term and longer-term tree mortality.
We will achieve this by combining a state-of-the-art forest burn experiment with continued monitoring of a unique set of long-term sampling plots, some of which we have tracked through a 2015-16 wildfire event associated with a strong El Niño. We are uniquely placed to address these fundamental questions given our network of burned and unburned forest plots that is already in place, and the numerous past datasets that we can use as baseline information. As well as advancing scientific knowledge about a pervasive and increasing threat to the future of tropical forests in the Anthropocene, our co-designed pathways to impact ensures we will also inform and improve approaches to minimise risk of fire-induced dieback of humid Amazonian forests.
Ancient southern temperate forests of Chile
The project is exploring the functioning and carbon dynamics of the magnificent Fitzroya forests of Chile. The magnificent southern temperate forests contain some of the oldest trees on Earth, some of them several thousand years old. The project is led by the Universidad Austral de Chile and in particular Antonio Lara, and funded by Chilean government funding agencies. We have installed weather stations and intensive monitoring plots operated by DPhil student Rocio Urrutia, and in early 2014 a flux tower will be installed.
Wytham Woods
Wytham Woods is Oxford University's own long-term research site, and has played in pivotal role in the history of ecology. Our group has a range of research there. This includes an 18 ha plot where 20,000 trees are being monitored as part of the SIGEO (Smithsonian Institute Global Earth Observatory) network, lots of 1 ha plots (including in edges and fragments) that are a joint project with Earthwatch, and an eddy covariance flux tower in partnership with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Here is a short video about some of our research at Wytham Woods, and some lectures on our carbon cycle work at Wytham can be found here. And this link gives an overview of the range of tree-related research currently going on at Wytham Woods (by Oxford University, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the Open University and Cambridge University, among others..
This link gives a detailed report on our large 18 ha plot.
Here is a short video about some of our research at Wytham Woods, and some lectures on our carbon cycle work at Wytham can be found here. And this link gives an overview of the range of tree-related research currently going on at Wytham Woods (by Oxford University, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the Open University and Cambridge University, among others..
This link gives a detailed report on our large 18 ha plot.
PAST PROJECTS
GEM TRAITS
The GEM team has collected extensive data on the carbon cycle of forests across the tropics . Over the period 2013-2018, the GEM-TRAIT protocol will be applied across all our GEM plots. This ambitious field campaign will result in the first global dataset linking tropical tree diversity to ecosystem function. GEM-TRAIT is funded by a European Research Council Advanced Investigator Award , with additional support for specific transects by other NERC and Royal Society grants . It will run from 2013 to 2018.
We will also work with the world’s most cutting-edge airborne remote sensing technology to explore how functional diversity and ecosystem function scale and vary at landscape scales.
The first and probably most ambitious traits campaign, in the Peruvian Andes, kicked off in April 2013 and continued until November 2013. It has been named CHAMBASA (CHallenging Attempt to Measure Biotic Attributes along the Slope of the Andes). Chambasa is slang for "a lot of work" in Spanish. Some images from CHAMBASA can be found here, here, here and here. The second major campaign was over April-May 2014, and is focussed on the forest-savanna transition in Brazil. It has been named BACABA (Biotic Attributes at the Cerrado-Amazonia BoundAry), the name of a distinctive local palm. The third campaign (T-FORCES Peru) was in central and northern Peru in 2014, the fourth (KWAEEMMA) was in Ghana in 2014/2015, the fifth (T-FORCES Australia) in 2015, and the sixth (Borneo, as part of the SAFE/BALI project), was over late 2015. and the seventh and eighth campaigns were in the Atlantic and Amazon forests of Brazil in 2015 (the ECOFOR project).
Overall we have collected a huge standardised global dataset on plant traits and ecosystem function.
GEM-TRAIT Ghana: KWAEEMMA
As part of our global network of intensive plots and plant traits collection, we are working on a gradient in Ghana ranging from wet rainforest (Ankasa National Park) through semideciduous forest (Bobiri Experimental Forest) through to forest-savanna transition (Kogyae Wildlife Reserve). Along this gradient we are studying the relationships between drought, biodiversity and ecosystem function. This work is in close collaboration with the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and also the University of Tuscia in Italy. The research is funded by grants from NERC (2011-2014) and the European Research Council (ERC), and also a new grant from the Leverhulme-Royal Society Africa Programme (2014-2016), focussed on "water stress, ecosystem function and tree functional diversity in tropical African forests".
The field campaign started in October 2014, and more information and photos can be found here and here. And here is a report from the Royal Society-Leverhulme Africa Awards meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in December 2014. Here is the poster on this campaign that was presented in Tanzania. The main campaign finished in April 2015, but a follow-up study by Ghanaian PhD student Teresa Peprah is looking at the seasonal variation in lead traits and photosynthesis.
ECOLIMITS
This is a new consortium project, looking at ecosystems services, degradation and links to poverty in the cocoa farm and forest landscape around Kakum National Park, Ghana, and the coffee growing landscape of south-western Ethiopia. It is funded by the NERC/DfID programme ESPA (Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation) and will run from July 2013 for three years. It is in partnership with the University of Reading, The Nature Conservation Research Centre in Ghana and Ethiopia, and numerous other partners in both African countries.
The project field campaign kicked off in Ethiopia and Ghana in Feb-April 2014 and will continue for 2.5 years. A project workshop in Elmina, Ghana in October 2015 showed excellent progress, and a fascinating dataset being collected covering both natural and social science. A number of our DPhil students (Festus Asaaga, Gonzalo Griebenow, Christine Moore, Victoria Ferris) have attached additional projects to this core project.
In 2016 we have been awarded an additional grant by NERC, to examine the impacts of the 2015/2016 El Niño event on both these focus social-ecological systems. Both these study areas were affected by a strong drought during the El Niño. With the new grant we will be continuing to work at this site well into 2017.
ECOFOR
ECOFOR is a UK-Brazil consortium project jointly funded by NERC and FAPESP. It looks at the links between biodiversity and ecosytem function along forest disturbance gradients in Brazil, one site in the costal Atlantic Forest of the Serra do Mar in Sao Paulo state, and the second main site in the Amazon Forest near Santarem, Para. The work will involve installing intensive monitoring plots in both sites, and collected information on plant traits and also bird communities.
The traits campaigns associated with this work have been underway through 2015
RAINFOR, AFRITRON and T-FORCES
RAINFOR (the Amazon Forest Inventory Network) is a network of forest inventory work across Amazonia. We co-founded RAINFOR together with Oliver Phillips of the University of Leeds in 2001. Since then RAINFOR has led to fundamental new insights into the Amazon carbon sink and its response to drought, and the functional biogeography of Amazonia. It has been funded by the European Union, NERC and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
AFRITRON is a sister network in Africa, co-ordinated by Simon Lewis of UCL/University of Leeds, obtaining similar insights for sites in Africa. We contribute sites in Ghana and Gabon (and in the future Ethiopia) to AFRITRON.
T-FORCES is a project supported by the European Research Council that integrates and expand these plot networks, and also develops a similar network in SE Asia. Oxford's role is to conduct ecophysiological transects along elevation gradients in Peru (2014), and Australia (2015). The Peru campaign was completed in October 2014, and more information can be found here. The Australia campaign was completed in 2015.
SAFE AND BALI
The Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems project (SAFE) explores how forest biodiversity and ecosystem function vary along a gradient from intact forests (Maliau Basin), through to logged forest, fragmented forest and oil palm plantations in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. This is a 10-year, multi-partner project led by Imperial College. More details can be found at www.safeproject.net. Our team installed and runs the intensive monitoring plot and a flux tower measuring the impacts of conversion of forest to oil palm plantation.
In association with the SAFE, the BALI project (Biodiversity and Land Use Impacts on Tropical Ecosystem Function) is a large NERC funded consortium project looking at the interactions between biodiversity and biogeochemical functioning along disturbance gradients in Borneo. It is centred on the SAFE and Maliau sites, but also includes old-growth forests at Lambir Hills (Sarawak) and restoration forest at Danum Valley. BALI involves many partners in the UK and Malaysia, and runs from 2013 to 2017.
This video gives an overview of SAFE. And this blog post has some photos from our first BALI field visit, in January 2014.
