Lucy Rowland installing sensors to measure water flux in trees in tropical rainforest in Ghana.
Matt Amesbury and Angela Gallego taking a core in Sassendalen, Svalbard
Angela Gallego taking a 6m long peat core in Oropel, Panama
Carbon cycle investigation in recovering Karst Ecosystems at the Puding Karst Ecosystem Research Station, Guizhou Province, China
Landscape and Ecosystem Dynamics
Exploring locations for new fieldsites in savannah vegetation in the Chapada dos veadeiros national park in Brazil.
Large-scale experimental investigation of carbon and water fluxes at Puding Karst Ecosystem Research Station, Guizhou Province, China.
Small scale, tree-based grazing (silvopastoral) system in Mato Grosso, Brazilian Amazon.
Measuring carbon fluxes over oil palm on tropical peat in Sarawak, Malaysia.
Small scale tree-based agricultural (agroforestry) system in Mato Grosso, Brazilian Amazon.
The Chenqi catchment in the NERC-NSFC Karst Critical Zone Observatory in Guizhou Province, China.
Monitoring plot establishment in tropical dry forest, Bahia, Brazil (photo: Peter Moonlight).
Joint University of Exeter – James Cook University facility to study the impact of air pollutant (ozone) on tropical vegetation
This research cluster builds on the University of Exeter’s established strengths in carbon, water, and nutrient cycling, with expertise in biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and modelling in the major global biomes.
The group’s recent research has included:
Understanding global biomes
We have:
- made major advances in quantifying Amazonian forest productivity and change, the impacts of fire, land-use change, air quality, forest response to drought and the role of soil nutrients in the region;
- studied the resilience of tropical ecosystems to environmental change across the pan-tropics;
- studied acclimation of tropical montane forests to climate change;
- taken trace gas measurements in tropical Asian Oil Palm;
- studied processes driving functioning of peatland ecosystems at high latitudes and the role of tropical peatlands in the carbon cycle;
- investigated the role of nutrient cycling in controlling mature forest and grassland responses to rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations;
- led major projects examining soil carbon dynamics in a range of terrestrial environments, from the role of erosion in agricultural systems to the biogeochemical consequences of permafrost thaw at high latitudes.
Pioneering technologies and techniques
We have:
- applied novel technologies, e.g. drones to capture landscape scale vegetation change;
- applied remote-sensing techniques (UAV, airborne LIDAR, satellite EO) to tropical forests, savannas and semi-arid ecosystems;
- developed global models of vegetation structure and function.
Developing and applying land management solutions
We have:
- applied global models of terrestrial ecosystems and the land carbon cycle, e.g. to study the role of land-based climate mitigation to avoid dangerous climate change;
- studied how land-use perturbs ecosystem service delivery and to identify approaches to minimise/reverse damaging impacts of soil erosion and land degradation;
- developed economical flux based assessments of nature based solutions;
- undertaken pioneering research in upland landscape and tropical savanna restoration to help create landscapes more resilient to land use and climate change;
- led the DRYFLOR network of >80 Latin American researchers and conservationists working in neotropical dry forests. We support conservation and livelihoods with focus on agroforestry and ecosystem restoration in some of the world’s most threatened tropical forests and savannas.
- studied peatland management, restoration and land use change impacts on peatland ecosystem functioning.
Group members
| Project | Exeter PI | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Oppenheimer Programme in African Landscape Systems | Andrew Cunliffe | Philanthropic £2.3m |
| Tropical peatlands and the carbon cycle, 2020-2025 | Angela Gallego-Sala | ERC €2.57m |
| Diversifying tree based grazing systems to create smallholder price premium opportunities for milk production in the Amazonian Arc of Deforestation | Toby Pennington | GRTA £615k |
| BioResilience: Biodiversity resilience and ecosystem services in post-conflict socio-ecological systems in Colombia | Ted Feldpausch | NERC NewtonFund ColombiaBio £1.4m |
| Quinquennial (half-decadal) carbon and nutrient dynamics in temperate forests: Implications for carbon sequestration in a high carbon dioxide world, Oct 2019-Sept 2024 | Iain Hartley | NERC large £850,000 |
| Climate-Carbon Interactions in the Coming Century | Stephen Sitch (co-investigator) | EU H2020 £1.3m |
| Increasing Carbon Accumulation in Arctic Peatlands, 2019-2022 | Angela Gallego-Sala | NERC £795k |
| Restoring Neotropical dry ecosystems - is plant functional composition the key to success? | Lucy Rowland | NERC-FAPESP £1.3m |
| Lightning: An invisible driver of tree mortality in the tropics? | Tim Hill | NERC £800k |
| Can the formation of new soil organic matter offset decomposition losses from thawed permafrost soils, June 2019-May 2023 | Iain Hartley | NERC £540k to Exeter |
| Do dryland ecosystems control variability and recent trends of the land CO2 sink? | Richard Brazier | NERC £800k |
| Ozone impacts on tropical vegetation: implications for forest productivity, 2018-2021 | Stephen Sitch | NERC £800k |
| Can tropical montane forest acclimate to high temperatures? 2017-2022 | Lina Mercado | NERC £800k |
| The Amazon Fertilisation Experiment (AFEX), Oct 2014-Mar 2020 | Iain Hartley | NERC £624k |