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Visualising Vietnam’s Future Forest Landscapes

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Large areas of forest around the world have been heavily degraded by logging, fire and hunting. Restoring degraded forests helps to slow climate change, reduces flooding and provides a home for threatened wildlife. Stronger action to restore forests is urgently needed for the benefit of people, nature and our climate. Stopping forest degradation and starting...

The Animals of Gair Wood - Research Spotlight on Alana Thornton

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Since completing a successful pre-planting survey last summer at the University's new research woodland, Gair Wood, Alana Thornton has returned to the site this year for a master's research project. Over two months, Alana recorded the diversity of birds and invertebrates at Gair Wood in the first summer since the woodland was planted. Alana's research...

Undergraduate tree research placement: Paid undergraduate opportunity to understand the effects of weather on planted tree survival at Gair Wood

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Pay: Placements are paid at University of Leeds Grade 3 level. Duration: 6 weeks full time starting in June/July/August Eligibility: UK citizens and people with a pre-existing right to work in the UK, undertaking their first degree (undergraduate or integrated masters) at any UK university. Accessibility: One additional placement available as ringfenced for UK Black, Asian...

Planting completed at Gair Wood!

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The final tree at Gair Wood has now been planted. The pedunculate oak seedling was planted by Anna Gugan, one of the key team members behind the design and creation of the woodland. It marks the completion of work which has seen more than 60,000 trees planted since January.  Gair Wood has been planted using...

UK Treescape Fellowship awarded to study Leeds' atmosphere

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A UK Treescape Fellowship has been awarded to Dr Jim Parker, an academic based at Leeds Beckett University, who will be working closely with the University of Leeds and and Leeds City Council to carry out his research. Urban treescapes can help regulate overheating and air pollution in cities. However, to reliably affect policy and...

Volunteer planting begins at Gair Wood!

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Volunteer planting efforts began this week at the University of Leeds' new research woodland, Gair Wood. Approximately 66,000 trees are due to be planted at the Gair Wood site in January and February 2023, with around 10% being planted by local volunteers. While the majority of planting will be conducted by professional contractors, some areas...

Animal surveys at Gair Wood

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by Alana Thornton (@Ecologicalana | LinkedIn) This Summer I joined the University of Leeds woodland creation project, researching the diversity of animals currently found in the grassland habitat that is destined to become Gair Wood. The University are working in partnership with the United Bank of Carbon (UBoC) to plant ~60,000 trees on 37 hectares...

Baseline Data and Research Placement at Gair Wood

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by Ben Hodgson (@EcologieBen) I have just completed a six-week Research Experience Placement (REP) on the Gair Wood Project. Alongside helping to collect baseline ecological data by completing invertebrate and bird surveys on-site, I had the opportunity to complete my own small research project. I decided to investigate which environmental factors affected the species diversity and...

Tropical soil microbes are threatened by global warming

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Global warming is likely to cause a decline in the number of species of microbes that live in tropical soils, which could threaten the biodiversity of rainforests and increase carbon emissions. A recent paper, published in Nature Microbiology, gives evidence that tropical soils are “highly sensitive” to increased in temperatures. Dr Andrew Nottingham, from the...

Tropical forests recycle rain – can all climate models predict this?

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Researchers at the University of Leeds have found that a vital rainforest process, known as rainfall recycling, is predicted less reliably by scientific models in the Amazon than the Congo. The study was published recently in Geophysical Research Letters and is freely available online. Rainfall recycling is an important process in tropical regions and may...