DiversiTree: diversifying our woodlands to increase resilience
DiversiTree aims to increase the resilience of current and future woodlands to climate change and tree diseases by understanding the methods to, and the impacts of, diversifying tree species composition within our woods.
Scientific challenge
Currently there is rapid woodland expansion within the UK as part of the government plans to store more carbon, to mitigate climate change and to reverse biodiversity declines. However, many of the UK’s trees are threatened by climate change and a range of diseases, which may limit their ability to contribute to carbon storage and the wide range of other benefits delivered by woodlands. We therefore need to make our woodlands resilient to these future threats.
One commonly proposed approach to increase the resilience of woods is to increase tree species diversity. This approach spreads the risk amongst many different trees as we don’t know how different trees will respond to climate change, nor what threats from diseases they may face decades into the future.
DiversiTree will combine woodland managers’ knowledge with ecological knowledge to identify which tree species and management approaches best deliver diversification that increases resilience.
Project summary
DiversiTree focuses on woods dominated by two conifer species, Scots Pine and Sitka Spruce, as in the year to March 2021 54% of all new woodland was coniferous. Scots Pine is a native conifer of economic significance. It is planted for timber production but is also the dominant species in the culturally iconic Caledonian pinewoods and is at risk from the tree disease Dothistroma. Sitka Spruce is not native to Britain but is our most economically valuable tree species and is at risk from invasive bark beetles and climate change.
DiversiTree addresses four knowledge gaps related to the diversification of woodlands:
- How do stakeholders understand forest diversity, their diversification strategies, and their visions and ambitions for diverse future forests?
- Are the microbes found on the leaves of trees more diverse in woodlands with mixed tree species and does this help trees to better defend themselves against diseases?
- How may diversification of tree species within a wood allow the continued support of woodland biodiversity?
- How do we implement and communicate management strategies to increase woodland resilience?
Principle investigator
Collaborating institutes
- Bangor University – Dr Norman Dandy
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – Dr Chris Ellis
- RSPB – Dr Paul Bellamy
- The Woodland Trust – Dr Chris Nichols
- University of Birmingham – Professor Rob Jackson
DiversiTree is one of six interdisciplinary projects receiving a share of £3 million funding from UK Research and Innovation as part of its Future of UK Treescapes programme, which will inform decision making by governments, local authorities and land managers.
In March 2024 we held a practitioners panel at Norbury Park where we discussed:
- How much diversity is “enough”?
- Managing diverse woodlands
- Stakeholder perceptions, objectives and attitudes to diversity
- How many species use Scots pine and Stika spruce?
An illustrated summary of our discussion can be seen in these four drawings
In September 2023 we held a practitioners panel at Mar Lodge estate where we discussed:
- How much diversity is “enough”?
- Managing diverse woodlands
- Stakeholder perceptions, objectives and attitudes to diversity
- How many species use Scots pine and Stika spruce?
An illustrated summary of our discussion can be seen in these four drawings
Putting practitioners at the heart of DiversiTree
At its essence, DiversiTree is a collaboration between academics and practitioners. One of the ways we are ensuring those who are at the coalface of woodland management have a voice in DiversiTree, is by convening a Practitioners Panel. The Panel will meet in-person four times throughout the project to engage in field-based 360 learning, to scrutinise, test feasibility and enhance the implementation of findings from the project. The Practitioners Panel is made up of individuals with in-depth and diverse experience of woodland management for a range of different objectives and priority outcomes. See the latest graphical outputs from our Practitioners Panel meeting below. Thank you to National Trust for Scotland and Norbury Park for hosting the events, and to Holly McKelvey for producing these outputs.
Outputs
Impact and Insight notes (They are designed to be accessible for policymakers and practitioners to both understand the research and apply recommendations from it, 2 pages)
- Diversifying woodland through grants: Treescapes Impact & Insights Note 2
- Diversifying tree species composition within Scots pine forests – will it provide resilience for forest associated biodiversity? Treescapes Impact & Insights Diversitree note 3
- Diversifying tree species composition within Sitka spruce forests – implications for biodiversity Treescapes Impact & Insights Diversitree note 2
Research notes (longer notes giving more detail on the data behind the Impact and Insight notes)
Peer reviewed publications
- The concept of woodland diversity: a review by Norman Dandy, Seumas Bates and Zoe Pearson QJF pages_July 2024_Final copyright stamped.indd
- Pining for diversity: Does greater tree species diversity enhance the resilience of associated biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in Pinus sylvestris forests? By Mitchell et al 2026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123312
- Sprucing up the UK’s Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) forests: can tree species diversification benefit biodiversity? By Mitchell et al 2025. The published version is available here Sprucing up the UK’s Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) forests: can tree species diversification benefit biodiversity? | Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research | Oxford Academic. If you don’t have access to it the final accepted version is available here
- Sitka spruce Ecol a database of Sitka spruce associated species Updating OakEcol: A database of Oak-associated biodiversity within the UK, with data on Sitka spruce associated biodiversity within the UK (Sitka spruce Ecol) – ScienceDirect
Databases
- The data on the species associated with Scots pine are available here: Scots pine-associated biodiversity in the UK (Scots pine Ecol) – EIDC
- The data on the species associated with Sitka spruce are available here: Sitka spruce-associated biodiversity in the UK (Sitka spruce Ecol) – EIDC
- The DNA sequence of microbes isolated from Scots pine trees and neighbouring tree species is available here: ID 1183283 – BioProject – NCBI
Videos
- Summary video youtu.be/tsU6IkOzewM
- Scots pine video youtu.be/WV5aIzdE4sY
- Sitka spruce video youtu.be/B7KADuOsrxY
- Management for tree species diversification video youtu.be/DSRDBKVLvVU
Follow us on @DiversiTree_UK
Additional Knowledge exchange: In addition to the knowledge exchange occurring within this project, this project is one of three Future of UK Treescapes projects that are part of the Tree of Knowledge: community the complexity of forest resilience.”
