Our Associate Director Professor Colin Osborne publishes on human impacts in African savannas and shows how savannas respond.
Colin explains the importance of this paper.
‘Savannas are home to millions of people in Africa, who rely on these ecosystems for their livelihoods. But human activities threaten savannas across the continent.
Our new paper looks at these threats – from rising CO2 causing tree invasion, to the expansion of agricultural land disrupting fire regimes – showing how they impact livelihoods and interact with each other.
We argue that savannas in different parts of the African continent will respond differently to these threats, and outline research that needs to be done to better understand the problem.’
This paper is published in the plant science journal the New Phytologist.
After Brexit and Trump, it’s time we talked about free trade by Colin Osborne. As Donald Trump is elected on a promise to challenge globalism our Associate Director Professor Colin Osborne gives his take on the environmental cost of free trade.
Brexit, consumption and sustainability by Colin Osborne. Is Brexit our chance to look at consumption and sustainability? Here our associate director Prof Colin Osborne argues that we need to discuss the true costs of our global free market economy
Colin supervises a few Grantham Scholars. Among them is Suma Mani, who is researching woodland creation in the Peak District. When Colin published a paper on the evolution of C4 photosynthesis, Suma wrote about how important this research is in light of the need for more sustainable crops. Read: Interplay of photosynthesis and evolution: paper summary.