Developing environmentally sustainable forestry value chains

森林在气候调节、水净化和生物多样性保护方面发挥着关键作用，同时提供对循环经济至关重要的可再生木材资源。英国的森林覆盖率是欧洲平均水平的三分之一，英国退欧后可能进行的农业补贴改革可能为林业扩张创造巨大动力。关于这种扩张对林地建立和管理方法的更广泛的环境后果，仍有不完整的证据基础。还需要更准确地说明伐木制品中的碳固存，并计算因用木材替代混凝土和化石燃料等影响大的产品而产生的环境“信用”。这些影响将在涉及初级木材原料级联使用的高级价值链的较长时间内产生，例如从建筑开始，最终用于燃料-如木屑颗粒或生物乙醇。这个令人兴奋的奖学金将开发最先进的生命周期评估（LCA）模型，将林地管理的生态数据与产品加工和产品替代的技术经济数据相结合，以回答以下问题：林地建立在边缘土地上的环境后果是什么，特别强调温室气体通量，碳固存，养分损失和生物多样性？创新木材衍生产品的环境足迹与替代传统产品相比如何？在解决这些问题时，该项目将通过量化生命周期温室气体缓解潜力和在“不占用”农业用地上扩大林业可能带来的环境共同效益，为目前关于“节约土地”的科学辩论作出重大贡献。

Forests play a key role in climate regulation, water purification and biodiversity conservation, whilst providing renewable wood-based resources critical for the circular economy. Forest cover in the UK is one third of the European average, and possible post-Brexit reform of agricultural subsidies could create substantial impetus for forestry expansion. There remains an incomplete evidence base on the wider environmental consequences of such expansion in relation to methods of woodland establishment and management. There is also a need to more accurately account for carbon sequestration in harvested wood products, and to calculate environmental "credits" attributable to substitution of wood for high-impact products such as concrete and fossil fuels. These effects will arise over an extended time period for advanced value chains involving cascading uses of the primary wood feedstock, e.g. starting with construction and culminating in fuel use -as wood pellets or bioethanol. This exciting studentship will develop state-of-the-art of life cycle assessment (LCA) models to integrate ecological data on forestry land management with techno-economic data on product processing and product substitution to answer the following questions: What are the environmental consequences of woodland establishment on marginal land, with particular emphasis on greenhouse gas fluxes, carbon sequestration, nutrient losses and biodiversity? How do environmental footprints of innovative wood-derived products compare with substituted conventional products?In addressing these questions, the project will make a significant contribution to the ongoing scientific debate about "land sparing", by quantifying life cycle GHG mitigation potential and possible environmental co-benefit of forestry expansion on land "spared" from agriculture.