Question: @Oli, will your research help us with deforestation & climate change at all

Oli Wilson answered on 8 Nov 2017:

I really hope so, that’s the plan at least! The forest I’m studying has been really badly affected by logging – between 80 and 90% of it vanished in the last 100 years or so. It’s also at risk from climate change, because its most important tree (the parana pine) likes cool places where it’s never very dry and those conditions will get rarer in the next few decades. So while my research won’t undo the deforestation or stop climate change, I hope it will help people look after the forest – and especially the parana pine – despite those things. One of my aims is to work out exactly where conditions are likely to be suitable for the parana pine in 100 years or so (maybe in shady valleys near streams and rivers) so the government can conserve those areas and give the forest somewhere to hide from the changing climate. It’ll also help people to plan good places to replant the trees to try and undo the damage of the last century.
Great question, thank you!