York research will help the world to deal with changing climate
Posted on 11 May 2005
The York Institute of Tropical Ecosystem Dynamics (KITE), a Marie Curie Excellence Centre, is being established in the University’s Environment Department thanks to a £1 million award from the European Union.
The research by academics including Dr Rob Marchant, Dr Jon Lovett and Dr Colin McClean will help agencies across the world to plan the management of ecosystems through a future of uncertain environmental change.
The research group will explore past, present and future changes in ecosystems at a number of sites in Kenya and Tanzania, in an area regarded as one of the world's hotspots of plant and animal biodiversity.
The research area will yield better understanding on the global implications of climate change and ecosystem response
Dr Rob Marchant
KITE, which will open in September 2005, will assess the causes of the study area's biodiversity while examining the extent of human impact on the ecosystem. The research will improve forecasting of the impact of climate variability on agriculture, ecosystem functioning and health, and will lead to an increased scientific understanding of land use and environmental conservation under a changing climate.
The research group will learn more about the inter-relationships between high (European) and lower latitudes – and how changes in tropical areas can influence ocean circulation patterns, control greenhouse gas emissions and impact on global carbon budgets.
Dr Marchant said: "KITE researchers will reconstruct past environments to help us to understand ecosystem response to climate dynamics in a biologically important and sensitive region. The research area will yield better understanding on the global implications of climate change and ecosystem response.
"KITE will foster international relationships by encouraging knowledge transfer between Europe and Africa and improving access to data. KITE will encourage public understanding of science. It will reinforce the research capability of the Environment Department and develop an international profile for environmental change research at University of York.
"Such closer links will be increasingly important as policies on managing the consequences of global climate change move from the national to the international political arena."
The project will help Europe to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Notes to editors:
- The Environment Department at the University of York was founded in 1992, initially to integrate ecological and environmental sciences with environmental economics. The aim was to improve understanding of environmental problems, and how to solve them, through the consideration of both the human dimension and the underpinning science. Its objective is to develop sustainable solutions to environmental problems that are consistent with human aspirations and with global, regional and local institutions and markets.
- Dr Rob Marchant who is currently based in the Department of Geography, Bennett Building , University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, will be moving to York when KITE opens in September. He can be contacted on + 44 (0)116 252 3833; + 44 (0)116 252 3854 (fax) or at r.a.marchant@le.ac.uk
- More information on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is available at www.unfccc.int/2860.php
- More information on the Convention on Biological Diversity is available at www.biodiv.org/default.shtml