Sophia Cunningham
Faculty of Science
Grantham Scholar
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The form, function, and vulnerability of urban trees under future climate change
The project
Trees play a critical role in urban ecosystems, delivering social, environmental, and economic benefits. Key ecosystem service benefits include evaporative cooling and shading, flood and pollution mitigation, carbon storage and sequestration, increased biodiversity, resident wellbeing, and aesthetic value. Cities are warmer than rural landscapes, and their increase in impervious surfaces with reduced vegetation disrupts the natural water cycle.
Climate change intensifies these problems, posing threats to human societies and ecosystems. The urban forest can mitigate against these negative effects through the services they provide.
However, the urban environment and changing climate expose trees to a unique combination of environmental benefits and stressors, which affects their physiological health and ability to deliver ecosystem service benefits. Despite widespread initiatives to increase tree planting, there is still limited species-specific understanding of how urban trees function and how they will respond to future climate conditions. Evidence-based guidance is essential to select species that can adapt, thrive, and continue delivering ecosystem services under changing climates.
Sophia’s research aims to identify which species are resilient or vulnerable to current and future conditions which is essential for managing a sustainable urban forest. She studies tree physiology and models carbon, water, and energy fluxes to understand species functioning. A key component of this work draws on data from the Urban Tree Observatory (UTO), a novel sensor network established in Sheffield in 2020 to investigate interactions between urban trees, people, and the environment.
Sophia is a PhD researcher based in the School of Biosciences at the University of Sheffield. She is supervised by Dr Holly Croft and Prof. Jill Edmondson from Sheffield, and Dr Rebecca Oliver from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH). Her PhD is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council through the ACCE DTP with a CASE placement with the Woodland Trust.
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