Tropical forests are a major global carbon sink and account for a third of the carbon fixed\u00a0globally by photosynthesis. Recent research shows that these forests are changing,\u00a0including increases in abundance and biomass of lianas (woody vines), which may be a\u00a0result of changing climatic conditions. Lianas reduce growth and increase mortality of\u00a0their host trees, thereby reducing carbon accumulation in tropical forests by as much as\u00a076%. Increased liana dominance may therefore further reduce carbon uptake and storage\u00a0and endanger the future of the tropical carbon sink, with serious implications for climate\u00a0change. Tree canopies suffer from liana infestation, which limits their leaf productivity and\u00a0leaf area and their reproductive success. Nevertheless, liana-induced impact on\u00a0phenological processes has received little attention, but is crucial to i) accurately include\u00a0liana effects in vegetation models and ii) better predict of the fate of tropical forests both\u00a0due to climate change as well as liana propagation in the future. This project aims to:<\/p>\n
The project will\u00a0involve a year-long field campaign in Panama to collect imagery using an Unmanned\u00a0Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and an analysis of remote sensing data to derive information on\u00a0photosynthetic capacity and timing of phenological events in the forest. The student will\u00a0work with a collaborative supervisory team, composed of physical geographers and\u00a0ecologists from the School of Geography, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,\u00a0Panama, and Marquette University, US.<\/p>\n
The applicant should be willing to spend time in a relatively isolated area in Panama to\u00a0collect field data and to learn advanced statistical modelling and remote sensing\u00a0techniques. Ecological field experience is an asset, but an enthusiasm for nature and\u00a0tropical forests is by far the most important prerequisite. Applicants should hold a\u00a0minimum of a UK Honours degree at 2:1 level, or equivalent, in a subject such as\u00a0Physical Geography, Environmental Science, Ecology or Natural Sciences.<\/p>\n
For further details please contact Dr. Doreen Boyd (doreen.boyd@nottingham.ac.uk<\/a>) or\u00a0Dr. Geertje van der Heijden (geertje.vanderheijden@nottingham.ac.uk<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tropical forests are a major global carbon sink and account for a third of the carbon fixed\u00a0globally by photosynthesis. Recent research shows that these forests are changing,\u00a0including increases in abundance and biomass of lianas (woody vines), which may be a\u00a0result of changing climatic conditions. Lianas reduce growth and increase mortality of\u00a0their host trees, thereby reducing… Read More »Being behind the times? Assessing the liana-induced impact on forest phenology using a multispectral Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":5859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-5858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-51","tag-nottingham"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/files\/2017\/10\/Dorren-Boyd-Image-400x400px.png?fit=400%2C400","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kFzn-1wu","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5860,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858\/revisions\/5860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}