Seminar Presentation - Tackling challenges to long-lived organisms - Professor Chris Quine

Prof Chris Quine is Chief Scientist for Forest Research and part of the directorate for Scotland’s Plant Health Centre.  During his career as an applied researcher at FR, he has worked on a wide range of topics including the effects of strong winds on trees (and Scotland’s wind climate), biodiversity and priority species conservation in plantation forests, risk communication, land use and ecosystem services, and the design and uptake of decision support systems. He is a member of the expert panel for NatureScot’s Science Advisory Committee.

The talk provides an overview of the threats facing some of our most valued long-lived organisms – trees!  It reflects on the extent to which natural disturbance events are now being supplemented by threats due to human activities – pervasive ones such as climate change, but also specific ones relating to failures in biosecurity.  Interdisciplinary research is contributing to our understanding of the complex interactions, exploring concepts of resilience as a framework for decision-making, and identifying some solutions which might help our trees, woods, forests (both native and non-native!) adapt to these changing circumstances.

Views expressed will be his own!

Presentation given in Edinburgh, 28 August 2019.

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