Forestry
Research Topic
Language: English
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Research problems linked to this topic
- How can we optimise the food system to support future food production and consumption sustainably whilst reducing environmental impacts?
- As well as modelling and understanding major land use change (for example from agriculture to forestry), how can we understand the effects of more subtle changes in land management across wide areas (for example changing tillage practice)?
- How can we balance different interests at local and national levels, to provide the resources we need, reduce degradation of natural capital and improve the state of the environment?
- How can the UK protect and increase its standing stock of organic carbon: trees, peat, soil, and salt marshes? How can these habitats most efficiently be distributed spatially given limited land and other needs (for example urban space, food production, recreation)? How can increases in carbon stocks be achieved while maximising co-benefits such as biodiversity, clean water, and nutrient balance?
- How can the UK optimise sustainable growth of biomass for use in power generation (bioenergy) and, with appropriate storage, for removal of atmospheric CO2? How can the negative environmental consequences from biomass production and use (on soil quality, water quality, air quality, and biodiversity) be minimised? What’s the full life cycle analysis for different feedstock? What’s the scalability of different feedstocks within sustainable limits?
- How do we minimize the risk of plant and animal disease import to the UK as traded products change, and as the UK goes through a period of significant change in its international trading arrangements post-EU and post COVID-19?
- How to optimize the deployment of different nature-based solutions to realise their various benefits and avoid negative outcomes (for example some tree planting on peatland)?
- How do we future proof farming and food chains to global shocks? What is the potential for wild relatives, landraces, and orphan varieties to increase diversity and enhance resilience?