Mr Rory Abernethy

Academic and work background: After completing my BSc in Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews in 2020 I continued my studies, beginning a Research masters in 2021 also at St Andrews. I started where I left off, with a focus on dendroclimatology, this time examining the climate response and carbon sequestration potential of Scots pine along an elevational transect spanning three watersheds across eastern Scotland. On completion of my research masters in 2022 I continued at St Andrews as a Laboratory Technician on a NERC/NSF project looking at trans hemispheric modes of climate variability. This project focused on applying new high resolution imagery techniques on under explored Southern Hemisphere datasets (e.g. New Zealand, Tasmania and Thailand) to assess modes of climate variability. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in fieldwork in the sub-tropical forests of western new Zealand during this project. My fixed-term position finished in 2024 before I started my current position as a full time PhD researcher at the University of Stirling.

PhD Project: I am currently researching my PhD project "Sitka spruce colonisation at treeline in Scotland".

Project background: The treeline ecotone is one of the most visually prominent transitional environments of the terrestrial landscape. However, across most of Scotland, a natural treeline is conspicuously absent. Today, the lack of a spatial continuous treeline can be mainly laid at the hooves of ungulates like Red deer (Cervus elaphus), Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and domestic sheep (Ovis aries) and the over browsing they inflict on the treeline ecotone. Though of course it is human beings and their management of the land that has led to the proliferation of these species in the uplands of Scotland.

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), a non-native conifer in Scotland important to the forestry sector, makes up the largest proportion of total woodland area by any species in Scotland (43%). Forestry is one of the primary ways in which an introduced tree species becomes invasive and the time lag between introduction and the spread of a species means that tree invasions are often underestimated. Now, with increasing frequency, Sitka spruce is colonising outside plantations into upland areas (where we would expect a natural treeline), with the potential to become invasive. The implications of this relatively novel scenario on the Scottish mountain environment are poorly quantified.

This project should help to; • Inform management of the spread of Sitka spruce, including buffer zones and risk maps, by identifying the key environmental and spatial correlates that may be facilitating colonisation. Additionally, it could improve our capacity to predict future colonisation hotspots and allows for prioritisation of management effort. • Inform upland woodland restoration projects and management of plantations adjacent to priority habitat, by clarifying when Sitka may be ecologically harmful vs. having neutral effects on wider biodiversity and habitat conditions. • Improve our understanding of the relationship between herbivory level and Sitka establishment, by assessing whether Sitka benefits from reduced palatability compared to native shrubs and trees in a variety of browsing scenarios. • Improve understanding around the effectiveness of transplant experiments to provide evidence of how ecological processes unfold in the early stages of colonisation and their wider application in montane ecological research. • Contribute to broader debates about afforestation, and ecological restoration in montane and upland systems in the wake of climate change.

Project Funders: My PhD is funded by Scottish Forestry Trust, Forest Research, Corrour Estate, Scottish Forestry and Tilhill and University of Stirling.

Research Interests Landscape ecology, Forest ecology, Treelines, Montane woodland conservation, Dendrochronology, Palaeoclimatology.