🚨 Funded PhD 🚨 How does the reproduction of trees respond to drought? How does this shape forest resilience to drought? Join us in Liverpool & Kew Gardens @rbgkew.bsky.social
to answer this question!

Details & application info here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Deadline: 7th January

🌳🌰🌲🌱🌤️🌡️

In the Netherlands this week, and a big crop of acorns on the way here too

Leg 2/8 of slow travel from NW England to Poznan, Poland. 36 hours with time to read papers and enjoy the views. And a stopover in Köln, with a visit to the Cathedral. All on time so far...

Tomorrow is the #SummerSolstice, which is a special day for beech trees too! We are installing experiments to test how the #solstice helps synchronise masting. Colleagues up ladders in trees across Europe doing this! Science explained in @uk.theconversation.com: theconversation.com/could-trees-...

A really wonderful start to my day, thanks to two final-year @livunigeog.bsky.social students. Such kind words are really appreciated. Plus an excellent addition to my office plant collection!

This is the amazing #LadyParkWood. Could this be one of the “wildest” wood in the UK? Governed only by natural dynamics for >100 years. But where is the regeneration? Absent even in gaps. Ground flora too. Deer the main culprit, but grey squirrel too. #rewilding?

The amazing team from @livunigeog.bsky.social & @buforestry.bsky.social who are helping with the 2025 resurvey of permanent plots at #LadyParkWood, originally established in 1945. Some plots has been untouched since ~1900. Thanks to @ect-uk.bsky.social for helping us, including with funding

Great day spent with my brilliant new(ish) colleague @belenfadrique.bsky.social installing a branch warming experiment at Ness Botantic Gardens, replicated across Europe. Testing how the solstice enables beech to synchronise fruit production (masting). Results next spring…
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Grateful to the Redmond Group for their insightful words in TREE about our work on resource allocation in trees under warming (doi.org/10.1073/pnas...). Love their sketch of the bigger picture, inc. a Pleistocene perspective and implications for forest resilience. Thank you!
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

1/3: New paper: how do masting plants optimise the delay in reproduction? Having gaps (years) between reproductive events starves seed predators, increasing fitness. But they are also missed opportunities for reproduction. How do plants fine-tune the length of the time gaps to maximise fitness?

1/5 What happens when woodland is left to rewild? At Lady Park Wood this transformation has been monitored since 1945! @ect-uk.bsky.social have funded the 9th resurvey (first resurvey since 2010). Exciting and daunting to be part of the team taking on stewardship of this amazing study!

Colleagues at Bangor Uni are advertising a new PhD project on the restoration of UK temperate rainforests. Fieldwork in beautiful locations including running field experiments + working with external stakeholders. Looks brilliant!

Full details here:
tinyurl.com/rainforestphd

🌳🌳🌳 We have a new paper in @pnas.org showing climate warming leads to growth decline in beech because it drives trees to reproduce more frequently. Climate change can cause growth decline even when drought isn’t increasing by shifting where trees allocate resources doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2423181122

🚨 #PhD alert! Can #tropical trees migrate up mountains to track climate change? 🌳🌱⛰️ If they can’t, extinction may follow. Help us answer this question, working in tropical forests in the #Andes. Amazing fieldwork opportunities, & mega team led by @belenfadrique.bsky.social.
tinyurl.com/mr35spbj

🚨 New paper! 🌲🌲🌲 Monkey puzzle trees reproduce in mast years that occur synchronously across their range. But large-scale sync isn’t the norm - just when its warm. We reconstructed using #TreeRings, using the signal from varying reproductive costs in male and female trees doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70087

The new chapter on flower & seed production at #BarroColorado is just amazing, especially for someone working in temperate forests. So many insights. One highlight? Based on decades of data, some species at #BCI need >60,000 seeds to produce a single one-year old recruit! 🤯🌱
tinyurl.com/mr3rcs4d

🚨 Funded PhD opportunity: forests & climate change
Drought reduces growth, triggers dieback & can kill trees, but how does it affect tree reproduction? Help us answer this question! Join a great team in Liverpool & Kew, inc. @belenfadrique.bsky.social 🌳🌱🌲 Deadline = Jan
Info: tinyurl.com/3z9z3ad6