Deep in an oak woodland an hour from campus, researchers work in the future atmosphere of 2050, to understand how to help our trees cope with climate change.
Image above: copyright Shomari Healey
What is BIFoR?
The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) was created in 2014 thanks to a £15 million philanthropic donation (plus further recent support), match-funded by the University.
BIFoR researchers peep into the future to see what impact more carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere will have on our trees though the Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experiment. Will trees help slow climate change?
‘Adding extra carbon dioxide in essence makes the facility something of a forest time-machine,’ explains Dr Kris Hart, Head of Operations for BIFoR, has been working at the facility in the Staffordshire woodland since the beginning.
How the BIFoR FACE experiment works
• Towers release air containing extra carbon dioxide into a patch of trees
• In the middle of the circle, the trees are growing in an atmosphere that is predicted to be everywhere by the 2050s
• Birmingham scientists measure the impact on the trees
Three ways our forest time-machine is protecting our future
1: Giving trees the resources they need to help slow climate change
Since 2021, BIFoR has published breakthrough findings: trees are able to continue to help us cope with climate change by absorbing and storing the extra carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Taking CO2 out of the air slows the advance of global warming.
However, trees need a key ingredient to convert carbon to tree growth: nitrogen. Can trees get enough of this ‘food’ to fuel this carbon absorption, and what could happen to our soil if the trees’ roots become so much more demanding for nitrogen?
Professor Sami Ullah and his team have found that soil nitrogen supply is likely to be 20% greater as climate change advances. The team is now looking at how long this higher soil nitrogen supply can be sustained before it becomes exhausted in soils and, critically, how we can increase it.
Professor Ullah says: ‘We’ve established the important role that soil nitrogen plays in carbon capture, so next we want to understand what happens if it runs out – and what that means for the future of our forests.’
2: Taking the forest laboratory into schools to study urban trees
The team at Birmingham have helped 130 schools turn their playgrounds into tree research laboratories. The BIFoR in a Box kit has been sent to schools from the UK to Dubai.
Pupils install a metal band known as a dendrometer (literally ‘tree measurer’ in Latin) around a tree trunk, which adjusts as the tree grows to estimate the amount of carbon stored over time. The lesson resources supplied are linked to UK curriculum key stages three, four and five, and the box includes a pop-up visor that turns a mobile phone into a virtual reality tour of the BIFoR FACE experiment.
BIFoR have made all the instructions available online with links to buy the equipment for a few pounds and would love for alumni to carry out their own tree research.
3: Supporting the rainforest
It takes a lot of carbon dioxide to simulate the atmosphere of 2050. Supplier RenEco, who built a CO2 capture plant to decarbonise their own business, were so impressed when they visited the BIFoR FACE facility that they wanted to get more involved. This award-winning partnership allows BIFoR FACE to conduct research into the impacts of the Earth’s elevated CO2 levels without directly contributing to it - but RenEco want to do more than that.
Investing in the technology that underpins the FACE experiment and an accompanying PhD scholarship programme, will enable BIFoR to support a similar experiment in Brazil, investigating how climate change will affect the Amazon rainforest. Six rings of towers similar to the UK experiment are already in place; BIFoR FACE will help AmazonFACE as they come online.
With the generous support of RenEco and co-funding from the Met Office, we envision creating a unique software programme tailored to FACE facilities of any size or location. This innovative technology will reduce the amount of CO2 needed by using it even more efficiently, and be open sourced in a common software language, allowing future FACE experiments to be tailored to local needs.
Bringing it all together: our future researchers
Ecosystem ecologist Richard Norby, a BIFoR Honorary Professor with over 40 years’ experience investigating ecosystem responses to atmospheric and climatic change, is funding the next generation of tree researchers. Richard’s support includes two PhD students, a BIFoR technician and a recently appointed Assistant Professor in Tree Physiology Under Global Change, Alice Gauthey, as part of the University’s 125th Anniversary celebrations.
Alice says: ‘I’m studying how extreme climatic events, such as heatwaves and droughts, affect forests’ ecophysiology and mortality. At BIFoR FACE, I am investigating how trees respond to the interaction of increasing temperature, decreasing soil moisture and elevated CO2 in our atmosphere. As one of the University’s 125th Anniversary Fellows, I am also planning to use the new FACE site in Brazil (AmazonFACE) to explore how these interactions impact tropical trees.’