Promoting native tropical tree species for sustainable ecosystem services under climate change

This project aims to determining the sensitivity of montane and transitional rainforest tree productivity and survival to warming and drought to guide sustainable tree plantation and ecosystem services in central and east Africa.

The project uses a unique set of previously established multispecies plantations in Rwanda along an elevation/temperature gradient with water treatments to simulate future climate conditions and to study their impact on the growth of 20 tree species belonging to different groups, montane vs. transitional and early vs. late successional species.

The productivity and survival of trees as well as how tree carbon allocation interacts with the environment will be studied over three years. Year 1: Tree biomass estimates and development of species-specific allometric biomass functions.

Year 2: Explore the tree carbon allocation and functional traits and how they control drought and temperature sensitivity. Year 3: Compile and evaluate data in combination with development of planting recommendations.

The project will have close contact with Rwandan forest authorities and NGOs and organize annual workshops for stakeholders to evaluate impacts on ecosystem services.

The project is a collaboration between University of Gothenburg (project management), University of Rwanda (PhD training and student engagement) and Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (Site management and project logistics).