*Rehab Almutairi: RXA015@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Prof Sami Ullah (GEES)
Year of study: Second
PhD info: Forests restoration under global change: response of young plantations to drought, atmospheric nitrogen deposition and elevated CO2.
*Alex Armstrong: ama141@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Prof Sami Ullah (GEES), Dr Liz Hamilton (GEES)
Year of study: Second
PhD title: Effects of atmospheric Nitrogen pollution on Soil Carbon Storage and Greenhouse Gas Emission from Forests Soils
Info: Reactive forms of aerially derived nitrogen deposition sourced from agriculture are often scavenged by tree's and deposited within woodland systems. Understanding how enhanced rates of nitrogen deposition impact woodland soil with regard to soil organic carbon decomposition, microbial activity and the release of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide is required to understand how our woodlands and their soils can be conserved and their provisions preserved.
Further information: Poster 2022
Sijeh Asuk: SAA815@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Dr Tom Pugh, Dr Nick Kettridge & Prof Jon Sadler
Year of study: Final
PhD: Population ecology and phenological responses of food-producing forest trees to climate change: implications for rural food security
Further information: BIOSPHERE-ATMOSPHERE EXCHANGE
Gemma Baker: gxb760@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Sarah Greene (GEES), James Bendle (GEES), Lydia Greene (Duke Lemur Centre, Duke University)
Year of Study: Second
PhD title: Life on the edge: New tools to track animal-forest trophic interaction across intact to degraded ecosystems
Info: Madagascar is a haven of floral and faunal endemism, with lemurs at the centre of engineering and maintaining the diverse and varied forest habitats the island comprises. There is no such thing as a healthy Malagasy forest without the endemic lemur communities. Forest degradation and loss of lemur communities form a destructive positive feedback loop, causing the loss of large fruiting trees and a shift in forest composition to smaller faster-growing trees less efficient at carbon sequestration. Forest health and function can be monitored through the tracking of changes in the diets of inhabitant lemurs, especially in edge habitats where they are forced to adapt to ongoing changes in resources as a result of degradation. This project aims to use biomarkers, tools used primarily in organic geochemistry for palaeoclimate reconstruction, to investigate the diets of lemurs from faeces, with the aim of developing these techniques to be applied to wild lemurs in the future to monitor forestry changes and forest-lemur interactions.
Further information: Poster 2022
Xinshi Cheng
Supervisors: Prof. Jason Hilton (GEES) and Dr Andy Plackett (Bio)
Year of study: First
Further information: Xinshi is studying seed plant diversity and evolution from a systematic investigation of exceptionally well-preserved fossils seeds from the late Permian of China. The project will use seed morphology and anatomy and consider functional and ecological adaptations that will unravel how seed plants adapted to the environments and climates in which they lived. A key aspect of the project is to evaluate seed plant diversity through the Permian-Triassic Mass extinction approximately 252 million years ago in which some groups died out while others went on to dominate younger floras globally. Methodologies include analysis and reconstruction of fossil seeds from 3D X-ray computer tomography and synchrotron sources, comparative anatomy with fossil and living seed plants, and phylogenetic analysis.
Estelle Darko
Supervisors: Dr Adriane Esquivel Muelbert (GEES), Dr Tom Matthews (GEES), Dr Laura Graham (GEES), Dr Tom Pugh (GEES and University of Lund), Prof. Oliver Phillips (University of Leeds), Dr Carolina Tova (Kew Gardens), and Dr Lindsay Banin (UKCEH)
Year of study: First
Research into forest diversity, dynamics, and resilience globally. I will be performing analyses at large-scales using data from forest inventory networks such as RAINFOR to investigate the effects of forest dynamics on diversity. For instance, I will be testing whether the range of species life history strategies within forest influence its diversity and the effects of diversity and dynamics on forest resilience. I will be applying a variety of metrics in order to determine how forests may potentially, variably respond to climate driven disturbances.
*Nine Douwes Dekker: NXD934@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Vincent Gauci, Rob MacKenzie, Sami Ullah
Year of study: Final
PhD: “I will look at the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soil and unravel the role of the soil microbial community. The GHGs considered are primarily methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). We hypothesise that thresholds of soil water, nitrogen and carbon contents will determine the net fluxes of GHGs, and that the spatio-temporal dynamics of hydrological conditions will play a key role in predicting the ultimate global warming potential of forests with climate change.”
Further information: Poster 2022
*Katy Faulkner: Based at University of Warwick
Supervisors: Prof Gary Bending (Warwick) & University of Birmingham supervisor is Dr Sami Ullah
PhD: Looking at the resistance and resilience of forest soil microbial communities and greenhouse gas emission to extreme weather events and a high CO2 world.
Further information: Poster 2022 and CENTA website
*Xianbang Feng
Supervisors: Prof. Iain Hartley at Exeter University, and co-supervised by Prof. Sami Ullah and Dr Liz Hamilton and Prof. Rob MacKenzie, University of Birmingham.
Year of study: First
Further information: funded by Chinese Scholarship Council and based at Exeter University. Xianbang’s research is focused on productivity of mycorrhizal biomass and its implications for carbon and nutrient cycling at BIFoR-FACE.
*William Hagan Brown: w.haganbrown@bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Dr Sophie Fauset (Uni Plymouth), Prof Ralph Fyfe (Uni Plymouth), Prof Emanuel Gloor (Uni Leeds), and Prof Rob MacKenzie (BIFoR).
Climate Change Impacts on Forest Canopy Temperatures: From Mechanisms to Implications. Using thermal imagery to capture leaf temperature, and a range of complementary measurements of leaf traits, William will study leaf energy balance for different species in different forests throughout the world, including looking at the effect of elevated CO2 in BIFoR FACE.
Grace Handy
Supervisors: Dr Marie Arnaud (GEES), Dr Adriane Esquivel Muelbert (GEES) and Prof. Rob MacKenzie (GEES) in collaboration with Forest Research and the Met Office.
Year of study: First
Further information: Impact of CO2 rise on root, leaf and wood production: the future of tree C allocation. Previous research suggests that trees can carry out increased levels of photosynthesis under elevated CO2, but growth cannot increase indefinitely due to other limiting factors such as nutrient availability. This project will focus on a tree's ability to combat this by allocating extra carbon belowground by increasing root growth, exudation, and microbial activity to explore and obtain more nutrients and water. The research for this project will be carried out at BIFoR FACE, in collaboration with Forest Research and the Met Office. Root production will be measured through the collection of images using a minirhizotron camera, a non-destructive root investigation technique, which will then be vectored and converted to rates of root production. This methodology will be used alongside more traditional methods of root extraction and examination using soil cores. Data on root production will then be considered alongside other relevant carbon storage data collected in the previous years of the BIFoR experiment, such as leaf area, to further understand where trees will allocate extra carbon under elevated CO2 and provide vital information to understand the future of the global carbon sink.
*Laura James: LXB973@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Dr Christian Pfrang, Dr R Girling (Reading) and Prof Rob MacKenzie
Year of study: Final
PhD: Trees function as highly sensitive and responsive communication hubs within ecosystems; transmitting, receiving and responding to critical information from the environment, often by means of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). “I will be exploring the potential effects of elevated CO2 and pollutants, such as ground-level ozone (O3), on the chemical communication between trees and other organisms, by examining qualitative and quantitative changes to VOCs released by trees.”
Further information: Poster 2022 Video
Jordan Johnston: JAJ083@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Seb Watt (GEES), Tom Pugh (GEES), Tom Matthews (GEES), Susanna Ebmeier (Leeds)
PhD title: Forest resilience and recovery through the lens of volcanic disturbances.
Year of study: Third
PhD: With many of the world’s forests under the threat of ecological catastrophe in the wake of anthropogenic agents of change, there is a need now more than ever to understand how forest ecosystems react and recover in the wake of a destructive event. The eruption of Chaitén (Chile) in 2008 and subsequent destruction of neighbouring forest is an opportunity to study how forests re-establish in the wake of disturbance. The work of this project aims to (i) establish primary succession dynamics in this particular ecosystem, (ii) determine if this re-growth is stochastic (random) or deterministic (controlled spatially in some way), and (iii) ascertain the implications of these findings on the wider context of forest recovery in the wake of disturbance.
Further information: Poster 2022
*Thomas King: t.king1@lancaster.ac.uk
Supervisors: Based at University of Lancaster with Kirsti Ashworth (Lancaster) Rob MacKenzie is the University of Birmingham supervisor
PhD: Ecophysiology of plant volatiles under elevated carbon dioxide.
Further information: Poster 2020
Aleksandra Kulawska: AEK851@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Dr Nick Kettridge, Dr Thomas Pugh, Prof Rob MacKenzie & Dr Sami Ullah
Year of study: Final
PhD: Exploring the desirability of forest landscapes in a natural flood management context. University of Birmingham Further information: Perspectives article - Thirsty and Drunken Trees
Novalia Kusumarini
Supervisors: Prof. Sami Ullah, Prof. Iseult Lynch (GEES) and Dr Liam Cox (School of Chemistry).
Year of study: FIrst
Funded by the Indonesian Government. Novalia is investigating differences in the chemistry of root exudates of newly planted nitrogen-fixing alder (Alnus spp.) and non-nitrogen fixing oak (Quercus spp) saplings in the Mill Haft catchment adjacent of BIFoR-FACE. The key question is to find out whether the two tree types use different strategies for nutrient acquisition. A method for targeted metabolomics of exudates is currently being developed in the School of Chemistry at Birmingham as part of the exudate characterization. A follow-on experiment on growing oak and alder saplings in the Wolfson Glasshouse under eCO2 will be undertaken to elucidate changes in exudation seasonality, chemistry and amount and how it affects nutrients availability in the soils to guide future forest restoration strategies.
Kerryn Little: LittleKE@adf.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Dr Nick Kettridge
Year of study: Final
PhD: Predicting Future Fuel (Vegetation) Water Moisture Content and Associated Wildfire Danger Across Temperate Europe
Further information: Pyrolife website
*Sophie Mills: SAM919@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Prof Francis Pope & Prof Rob MacKenzie
Year of study: Final
PhD: “I will be investigating the effect of elevated CO2 on primary biological aerosol (bioaerosol) production, in particular pollen and fungal spores, in woodlands as part of the BIFoR FACE experiment. Bioaerosols transport genetic material of plants and fungi, can cause and exacerbate severe health issues afflicting humans, and they can act as cloud condensation and ice nuclei, impacting our atmosphere and climate. This research will contribute to informing predictive climate models (e.g. JULES land surface model) used at the Met Office."
Further information: Poster 2021
*Susan Quick: SEQ616@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Prof Stefan Krause & Prof Rob MacKenzie
Year of study: Seventh (part time)
PhD: Tree-Soil-Water relations under elevated CO2 - This project will investigate the role the water cycle (export/import and storage) plays in carbon transport, in a small temperate oak-hazel woodland. Is the canopy and understorey development, natural decay and regeneration in a mature oak/hazel woodland influences by climate variability, especially eCO2, temperature and precipitation? Considerations include: use of water by the dominant/subdominant tree species; understanding of canopy water holding and water flux at the leaf/twig level; the influence of understorey (herb and shrub layers); woodland species diversity.
Further information: Presentation / Poster 2022
*Andrea Rabbi: AXR1049@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Prof Stefan Krause
Year of study: Third
PhD: Mixed forest planting with elevated H20
Further information: Poster 2022
*Manon Rumeau: MLR094@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Sami Ullah & Rob MacKenzie
Year of study: Third
PhD: Exploring the effects of elevated CO2 on free living Nitrogen fixation as well as on other Nitrogen cycle processes in two mature forest, BIFoR FACE (UK) and EucFACE (Australia).Manon is working with the QUINTUS team
Forests under climate change will require more Nitrogen (N) to continue stocking a part of our CO2 emission. The main source of new N in natural ecosystems is Biological N Fixation (BNF). I will be exploring the effects of elevated CO2 on free living N fixation as well as on other N cycle processes in two mature forest, BIFoR FACE (UK) and EucFACE (Australia). By using 15N isotopic methods, we will have a better understand of N cycle response to climate change.
Further information: Poster 2022
*Klaske van Wijngaarden: kxv056@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Tom Pugh (GEES), Josh Larsen (GEES), Ben Smith (Western Sydney University (WSU)) Belinda Medlyn (WSU)
Year of study: Third
PhD: From branch to forest to globe: How do trees choices regarding growth affect forest responses to increased carbon dioxide levels? I will look at the woody carbon dynamics of the trees at the BIFoR FACE and eucFACE experiments. A better understanding of the fate of carbon through increased photosynthetic activity and more insight in the response of complete forest stands to elevated CO2 levels will help increase the accuracy of future carbon budget models. This project will explore the use fieldwork data of different woody compartments to determine turnover rate and chemical composition changes in two different ecosystems exposed to elevated CO2 levels.
Further information: Poster 2022
*Bridget Warren: BAW888@student.bham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Dr James Bendle
Year of study: Final
PhD: Development and application of novel ecological and environmental proxies based leaf wax lipids.
Further information: Poster 2021 and video