An open-air laboratory that could change the face of forestry
To the uneducated eye, the 10 hectare plot that has been planted near the University of Stellenbosch looks no different to the other hundreds of thousands of hectares of Eucalyptus being planted every year across South Africa. However, none of the other plots have their own army of scientists and state-of-the-art remote sensing systems including drones, laser scanners and highly specialised advanced LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology that will monitor every aspect of the eucalypts growth and development, from root to canopy, for the duration of their rotation.
“The 10-hectare, Intensive Monitoring of Planting and Competing Trees Open-Air Laboratory (IMPACT OAL) plot will play an important role in how we adapt our Eucalyptus silviculture strategies going forward to meet the challenges posed by climate change and related fire, insect and disease risks,” explains Prof David Drew, the Research Chair of EucXylo. This programme is based at Stellenbosch University to better understand the processes of ecophysiology, growth and wood formation of eucalypts, funded by the Hans Merensky Legacy Foundation.
Currently the connection between physical stress, reduced growth rate and higher mortality in eucalypts is only partially understood. The development of the long-term research plantation to intensively monitor Eucalyptus growth, officially opened in September 2024 by Dr Khotso Mokhele from the Hans Merensky Legacy Foundation and Professor Sibusiso Moyo, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research Innovation and Postgraduate Studies at Stellenbosch University, will not only provide a far better understanding of how these are connected, it will also enable plantation management techniques to be adjusted accordingly and for wood formation models to be updated.
“This is not science for science-sake. We currently have knowledge gaps that hinder our ability to adapt silviculture practices accordingly to navigate the challenges associated with climate change.
Left unaddressed, we are placing the productivity of our plantations at risk and opening ourselves to the economic and employment consequences associated with this. The IMPACT OAL will provide us with the field data needed to plug those knowledge gaps and inform the industry’s silviculture practices and decisions going forward.” Drew continues.
The IMPACT OAL project is one of the first facilities in South Africa to intensively monitor Eucalyptus tree growth dynamics from seedling to harvesting, using a multi-species approach and different levels of stand density. “
A key component of the research is to investigate the role of competition on eucalypt growth and physiology, which is achieved by planting the trees at different spacings (1m 2, 2m2, 3m 2 and 5m 2) to get a range of stand densities that will give a high contrast between the level of competition that the trees will experience during growth. As well as being planted as monocultures at the different densities, the four species of Eucalyptus (E grandis, E urophylla, E cloeziana and E cladocalyx ) will also be studied in mixed-species plots,” explains Drew.
By including mixed-species plots we can start determining how these species interact with each other as very little is known about how eucalypts respond to other members of the genus. From research conducted on other plants and trees, it is known that there is a benefit to using mixed-species plots, as monocultures tend to be predisposed for certain pests and diseases, while in mixed-species plots the effect is less severe. It is becoming a standard practice in Europe to plant forestry species in mixed-species plots and the question is how would eucalypts fare, particularly if you start introducing competition.
“The IMPACT OAL is an exciting, novel and potentially very powerful research tool, that provides opportunities that go beyond helping our Sector navigate both current and future challenges associated with climate change and its related risks. It offers a platform for cross-Sector collaboration, with research and students from all backgrounds, who are interested in studying the ecology of plantation forests and the growth and wood-forming processes of trees, invited to apply to IMPACT OAL.
It also provides an opportunity to better inform the general public and education institutions about plantation forestry, in particular the sustainable approach being taken in South Africa, as it is open to both,” Drew concludes.
Source: FSA Magazine (Pages 22 – 23)
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