Our fellowships deepened our understanding of our research objectives and provided opportunities for building skills and capacities among individual researchers.
For further information about our fellowships, see our end-of-programme report.
Our fellowships deepened our understanding of our research objectives and provided opportunities for building skills and capacities among individual researchers.
For further information about our fellowships, see our end-of-programme report.
Climate change and current land-use practices are set to double flooding in the UK within the next 50 years. This fellowship explored how restoring floodplain treescapes could alleviate flooding.
Natural Flood Management (NFM), including tree planting, can mitigate flooding in environmentally and socially beneficial ways. Leon worked towards creating a conceptual and modelling framework for restoring floodplain treescapes.
Outcomes:
Wych elm (Ulmus glabra) populations in the UK have been devastated by Dutch elm disease (DED), leaving questions about how to conserve this species and restore its role in native treescapes.
This fellowship aimed to address a gap in understanding of how the genetics of wych elm influence a tree’s resilience or susceptibility to DED and develop possible conservation strategies.
Outcomes:
UK treescapes face increasing threats from pests and diseases. This fellowship explored the mechanisms by which oak seedlings trigger their own defences, creating a database for future UK studies.
During this fellowship, Marine constructed 100 fully autoclavable oak seedling microcosms and grew Quercus robur and Quercus petraea British oak seedlings in sterile conditions to examine microbiota interactions.
Outcomes:
Human activity has rendered mountain woodland almost extinct in the UK. This fellowship strengthened the partnership between Cairngorms Connect (CC) and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), enabling knowledge exchange between locations with similar climate, geology and species range. Ellie contributed to monitoring and research in two key Norwegian sites.
Outcomes:
The supply of native tree seeds underpins the UK’s treescape expansion efforts. However, seed production (masting) varies strongly between years, making monitoring and predicting seed supply crucial. This fellowship explored strategies to monitor, predict and secure climate-resilient seeds, supporting the UK’s forest goals.
Outcomes:
Agroforestry adoption in the UK remains limited despite efforts to promote it. This fellowship analysed the barriers and constraints hindering adoption and provided actionable solutions. Through a secondment at Defra and a placement in France at INRAE, Amelia gained insights into policy design and alternative agroforestry systems.
Outcomes:
Urban trees deliver different benefits depending on where they are planted. AFFORE3ST aimed to focus urban tree planting where it will deliver the greatest benefits. This fellowship aimed to integrate data-driven approaches to urban tree planting with community-centred approaches to co-produce a Strategic Tree Planting Guide for air quality improvements.
Outcomes:
Upland woodland pasture has declined in the UK, as has its delivery of environmental and socio-economic benefits. This fellowship explored stakeholder perspectives and provided actionable solutions.
Rob carried out qualitative research among stakeholders in the UK and in the comparable upland landscape of the Swiss Jura. Through interviews, focus groups and knowledge exchange events, he explored stakeholder and practitioner perspectives on the restoration, creation and maintenance of woodland pasture.
Outcomes:
Green spaces help to regulate conditions within the urban environment. This fellowship aimed to quantify the specific effects of urban treescapes on microclimates. Jim installed over 70 high-accuracy sensors across Leeds to record air temperature, humidity and pollution at 15-minute intervals. Positioning the sensors in areas with and without treescapes, allowed Jim to collect over one million data points, making it the most comprehensive dataset of its kind in the UK, and possibly globally.
Outcomes: