Sylva Scholarship

healthy trees and productive forests

The Sylva Scholarship was launched in Autumn 2010 in partnership with the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford. This is an important initiative under our Science programme, aiming to advance sustainable forest management through research and communication by supporting a research studentship at the Department.

The theme of the scholarship is healthy trees and productive forests. This reflects a joint vision between the Sylva Foundation and Plant Sciences to foster a robust tree and forest resource in the light of projected environmental change. Changes in the frequency and occurrence of pests and pathogens are seen as significant potential threats to our tree resource. Increased stress on tree health is anticipated with environmental change, further increasing tree susceptibility to pests and pathogens. Impacts in the forest ecosystem as a result of changes to management practise and environmental variability are also poorly understood. Maintaining a healthy and functioning tree resource is critically important to support the delivery of a wide range of sustainable outputs, including wood products for a low carbon society.

2010 Sylva Scholarship programme

Sylva Scholar:	Kirsty Monk
Research Title:	The consequences of management and climate change for ecosystem function: a case study of cord-forming fungi in English woodlands.
Institution:		Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford.
Partners:		Natural History Museum, London

Summary of research

Two major challenges face UK forestry over the next half century:

Meeting increased demand for wood and other forest products and services in a sustainable fashion;
Managing shifts in the species composition of semi-natural stands in response to environmental change without loss of productive or ecosystem functions.

Forests in the UK are currently valued as much for their biodiversity, carbon storage and environmental services as they are for their capacity to produce useable wood. However, the majority of lowland broadleaf woodland is unmanaged and much is neglected. Growing emphasis on reducing carbon emissions through increased use of locally-produced timber and biofuel will provide a powerful incentive to make these woods more productive. It is uncertain whether management for production will have positive or negative impacts on biodiversity and other environmental services. It is clear that in order to maintain and enhance production new provenances and species will need to be introduced that are better adapted to novel environmental conditions. A major concern is that such introductions (either through planting or colonisation) may have significant impacts on many important ecosystem processes such as carbon cycling, disease dynamics and trophic webs, and that this may have an impact on sustainability.
In this study we propose to examine whether changes to the management regime and species composition of UK broadleaved woodland are likely to have a significant impact on ecosystem function. We will do this by investigating their effects on an important group of ‘ecosystem engineers’ – the cord-forming fungi (CFF).

	Download an outline of the 2010 research project: The consequences of management and climate change for ecosystem function: a case study of cord-forming fungi in English woodlands.			Download an outline of the Sylva Scholarship programme
	Current news from our blog about the Sylva Scholarship programme