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Preserving England’s Ancient Oaks with Cutting-Edge Technology

England is home to more ancient and veteran oaks than those in Europe combined. They are not only fundamental to our landscapes but provide many habitats becoming a declining ecological niche for a whole swathe of species specially adapted to these trees. They too present huge opportunities for carbon sequestration, the quantification of which is becoming increasingly important to our understanding of global carbon stock and how we are mitigating climate change.

At the National Centre for Earth Observation, researchers Professor Mat Disney and Dr. Cecilia Chavana-Bryant are at the forefront of efforts to study and conserve these natural icons. Their work has uncovered the incredible structural complexity of 40 ancient oaks, offering insights into their growth patterns and ecological importance using the laser-scanning technique known as LiDAR. These 3D digital models provide a legacy resource to help us study and safeguard these trees for generations to come. The data set can be accessed on ZENDO.

The SCATTER: Scanning Ancient Trees with Terrestrial LiDAR project began in 2022 when the Woodland Trust funded a research project exploring the architecture of these ancient oaks. The SCATTER team comprises of researchers from University College London, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the National Centre for Earth Observation, and have included both pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) and sessile oak (Quercus petraea) in their scans. The scans can capture incredibly intricate details of tree structures and features which are often critical to the biodiversity these trees support.

Professor Mat Disney commented:

It’s been fantastic to be able to apply our new remote sensing methods to these incredibly old trees, to see them in a new way. The trees themselves are fascinating but being able to potentially provide new insights and tools for the practitioners working with them is also really rewarding. We’re all learning as we go and that’s the way it should be!”

The goal of the project was to build a digital archive of ancient and veteran oak tress to understand the diversity of their shape, size and forms with three key aims:

1. Create a digital archive of ancient oak trees that’s openly accessible for the public.

2. Compare and contrast the architecture of ancient oak trees with different histories (for example, trees with different management histories, locations and species).

3. Understand the benefits and limitations of using LiDAR to monitor trees, and use the findings to inform knowledge sharing workshops and spark conversations amongst tree specialists.

These scans will not only support the key aims of the project but go on to support the long-term management of these ancient trees. LiDAR can aid in assessments of their needs to conserve these unique and declining ecosystems. They also hope to use the structural trait data sets to explore the similarities and differences of ancient and veteran oaks, potentially allowing us to predict what younger trees may have the potential to grow into future veterans. These scans are also going to be used to support ecosystem services, allowing us to make more effective carbon assessments for improved accuracy of the carbon stored in structurally complex trees.

Dr Cecilia Chavana-Bryant said:

The SCATTER project has been one of the most rewarding research projects I have undertaken. From the outset, we recognised this project involved an important and fascinating research topic and also offered the opportunity to create a scientific, historical, and cultural legacy for the UK through the 3D digital archive. This archive is open-source and accessible to everyone online.”

Katie Thompson, the co-founder of Ancient Woodlands UK and Youth Events and Communications Officer for the Woodland Trust, said:

It is brilliant to see science providing a deeper understanding of how ancient trees provide an extremely special, niche habitat in our world. Alongside ecological importance, ancient trees also provide cultural significance in our society and their protection is crucial. The SCATTER project supports the work being done by the Woodland Trust and conservationists everywhere to fight the biodiversity crisis.”