In July, eleven members of the Oxford Ecosystems Programme attended the 60th annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) in Kigali, Rwanda, where all had the chance to present their research. Not only was this a thought-provoking conference where novel research was shared from the global tropics, but this was also a deeply cultural experience, where we gained insight into the moving history and long-lasting traditions of Rwandans.
The conference kicked off on Sunday evening with a welcoming event hosted by the ATBC-Africa Chapter at the Norrsken House in Kigali. Here we heard from Ms Beatrice Cyiza from Rwanda's Ministry of Environment, who shared insights into Rwanda's conservation agenda and what having ATBC in Kigali means for this developing country, setting the context for our week in Kigali.
Ecosystems honorary lab member, Professor Göran Wallin, gave the opening plenary presentation on Monday morning focused on the research that he and his research lab have been doing in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, over the past 20 years investigating the ecophysiological functioning of a tropical forest ecosystems. Göran and Kerry-Anne Grey (Ecosystems Dphil student and programme assistant) later coorganised a well-attended symposium on 'Warming Responses of Tropical Plants and Ecosystems'. Here Kerry presented research from her first DPhil paper on the 'Physiological consequences of high temperatures and water stress for Southern African savanna trees'.
As usual for ATBC's annual meeting, the Ecosystems Programme was responsible for many of the week's symposia. Dr Nicola Stevens (Trapnell Fellow in African Environments) organised a fascinating symposium on how we can use long-term vegetation plot data to inform management and conservation in Africa. Professor Yadvinder Malhi (Ecosystems programme lead) partook in the symposium and spoke about his novel research on linking vegetation plots to animal wildlife through ecological energetics. Dr Sruthi Krishna Moorthy (Ecosystems junior research fellow), an expert in the biology of tropical lianas, chaired a symposium on 'Liana Ecology Unveiled: Exploring multifaceted roles in tropical forest ecosystems'. This symposium featured insightful presentations and discussions on this emerging field of tropical biology.
The Functional Biodiversity & Earth Observation Lab, led by Associate Professor Jesus Aguirre Gutierrez, organised a symposium where they shared their cutting-edge research that is harnessing the power of remote sensing products to inform global ecological research. The session kicked off with Dr Felipe Martello (Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery postdoctoral researcher) speaking about how they are using multispectral earth observation imagery to predict fine-scale functional traits of forest vegetation. This was followed by Dr Manoela Machado (Ecosystems postdoctoral researcher) giving an overview of her research on fire in the Brazilian Cerrado. Here she is integrating LIDAR and field data to monitor vegetation structure under a range of fire regimes. Kendall Jefferys (Ecosystems DPhil student) then spoke about how she is using tropical pollination networks to track plant functional traits along an acquisitive-conservative trait continuum. Associate Professor Jesus then closed off the symposium with a synthesis of the research they are conducting in the lab. Here he spoke about the canopy functional trait variation across Earth's tropical forests.
The Ecosystems Programme also partook in many other symposia and oral sessions during the week. Dr Eleanor Thomson (Ecosystems postdoctoral researcher) presented her research on the impact of seabirds on productivity, allocation and nutrient cycling of tropical island forests. Prof. Yadvinder spoke in a symposium for the 60th Anniversary of the ATBC where the conference had a chance to look back at the evolution of the field of tropical ecology and forward at how the it may progress in the future. Here he presented research that he and Dr Sruthi have been working on quantifying how tropical ecology has changed over the past 60 years. Dr Nicola Stevens gave an insightful and thought-provoking talk on her work on grassy ecosystems in the Anthropocene. Dr Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng (Ecosystems postdoctoral researcher) presented on his groundbreaking research, 'Leveraging AI to map West African forest-savanna boundary in 1946', where he received a great turnout and discussions with fellow scientists interested in replicating his methodology in other ecosystems around the world. Budding collaborations from these kinds of conversations are what make conferences like ATBC so valuable for early career scientists like Huanyuan. Prof. Yadvinder Malhi closed off the conference as a member on a panel discussion the future of the field of tropical biology and conservation.
This busy, exciting and educational week was a wonderful opportunity for the Oxford Ecosystems Programme to share our research with the tropical conservation community, reaching scientists and conservationists from around the world. New networks were made and future collaborations are already budding. As Dr Huanyuan said, "the most impressive moments [of the conference] go to those spontaneous conversations with keen local forest conservationists - most of whom have a master degree and work in the forests of their own country. Their daily experiences and stories are very thought provoking for forestry scientists in the field." It's not usual for such a significant portion of a research lab to attend such an important conference, and we are excited to continue to experience the impact of this conference on our lab and our respective research communities.
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