BIFoR aims to be an internationally leading Institute that will address two fundamental and interrelated challenges:
The dynamic response of forests to environmental change, including climate change, is only partially understood. To increase understanding, in 2016 we built a Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experiment, set in mature, unmanaged, temperate woodland.
We will address: tree defence, susceptibility and resistance under current and future climatic and environmental scenarios; disease systematics and diagnostics; genomic, metabolomic and bioinformatic tools for discovery of biomarkers of toxicity that are predictive of whole plant disease; disease epidemiology and modelling; invasiveness; methods of control, containment and mitigation; and, from a broader systems perspective, innovative approaches to manage risks to forest health.