Casey Ryan

casey.ryan@ed.ac.uk

I am a lecturer in ecosystem services and global change at the University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences. My work is focused on the miombo woodlands of Southern Africa, their ecology and the ecosystem services that they provide. See the links on the left for more detail about my work.

My main research topics include:

• Miombo woodland ecology, particularly the role of fire
• Land use change at forest-agriculture frontiers, particularly in SE Asia and Africa
• The carbon cycle of tropical savannas and dry forests
• The leaf phenology of seasonally dry ecosystems
• Tree allometry and biomass estimation
• Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), with a particular emphasis on African woodlands and shifting cultivation

I use a mixture of methods and techniques in my research, from field based studies of trees and soil to data acquired from satellite. I use computer modeling and GIS techniques for much of my work.

Current projects

I’m currently working on the following projects.

• A grant from IIED is funding us to support Mozambique's efforts to reduce forest loss. We are applying a novel methodology to quantify current deforestation and forest degradation in central Mozambique (Ryan et al, GCB, 2011), and also to understand the main pressures on forests. Although small-scale agriculture, charcoal production, and the use of wood for construction are thought to be important drivers of forest loss, policy makers are unsure of their relative importance, which hinders effective policy. Neha Joshi is leading the fieldwork to ground truth radar imagery of land use change and to understand local livelihood decisions that lead to forest loss.

• iREDD+ (Impacts of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and Enhancing Carbon Stocks), a recently funded EU project looking at the impacts of reducing emissions from deforestation in SE Asia. We will be working in Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam and China. Nick Berry is working on this project as part of his post doc on tropical land use change.

• A project in Tanzania based around the The Mpingo Conservation and Development Initiative. Dr Mat Williams, local collaborators and I will develop new methods for rapid carbon stock assessment, with the goal of fusing community-based ground measurements with satellite monitoring. Such methods should help small holders and rural communities to benefit from the rapidly developing carbon market.

Other Projects

• As part of the NERC Carbon Fusion project, I was funded to look at methods of estimating tree biomass from satellite, comparing optical and radar satellite imagery at various resolutions. The work produced estimates of biomass with known errors and uncertainties at a site in Mozambique, which is currently being written up for publication.

• The Elizabeth Sinclair Irvine fund supports the ongoing measurement of the permanent sample plots in Nhambita, Mozambique.

Other Work

I have also worked for UK Department for International Development, (DFID) providing consultancy and research services to their Africa department on issues relating to REDD.

In 2009 I worked at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology producing a briefing note on deforestation for MPs and Peers. I used to be the secretary of the Royal Society's Global Environmental Research Committee and part of their Frontiers of Science Programme. From 2002-2005 I worked as the international project officer of the SOLAS (Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study) at UEA. Before that I taught English in China and worked at a design agency.

Publications

Nearing completion

The extent of pre-rain green-up across Southern African woodlands

Peer reviewed publications (in press or accepted)

Please feel free to email me to request a copy of these publications.

Ryan, C. M., T. Hill, E. Woollen, C. Ghee, E. Mitchard, G. Cassells, J. Grace, I. Woodhouse and M. Williams (2011). "Quantifying small-scale deforestation and forest degradation in miombo woodlands using high-resolution multi-temporal radar imagery." Global Change Biology. In press. [html] [pdf]

Ryan, C. M., M. Williams and J Grace (2011). " Above and Below Ground Carbon Stocks in a Miombo Woodland Landscape of Mozambique" Biotropica,43(4): 423-432. [html] [pdf]

Ryan, C. M. and M. Williams (2011). "How does fire intensity and frequency affect miombo woodland tree populations and biomass? ." Ecological Applications, 21(1): 48-60. [html] [pdf]

P. Ciais, A. Bombelli, M. Williams, S.L. Piao, J. Chave, C.M. Ryan, M. Henry, P. Brender and R. Valentini (2010). "The Carbon balance of Africa: Synthesis of Recent Research Studies" Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 369, 2038-2057. [html]

Ryan, C. M. (2009). Deforestation. POSTnote. London, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. [pdf]

Mitchard, E. T. A., S. S. Saatchi, I. H. Woodhouse, G. Nangendo, N. S. Ribeiro, M. Williams, C. M. Ryan, S. L. Lewis, T. R. Feldpausch and P. Meir (2009). "Using satellite radar backscatter to predict above-ground woody biomass: A consistent relationship across four different African landscapes." Geophys. Res. Lett. 36. [pdf]

Furley, P. A., R. M. Rees, C. M. Ryan and G. Saiz (2008). "Savanna burning and the assessment of long-term fire experiments with particular reference to Zimbabwe." Progress in Physical Geography 32(6): 611-634. [pdf]

Williams, M., C. M. Ryan, R. M. Rees, E. Sambane, J. Fernando and J. Grace (2008). "Carbon sequestration and biodiversity of re-growing miombo woodlands in Mozambique." Forest Ecology and Management 254(2): 145-155. [pdf]

Liss, P., P. Boyd, E. Cortijo, K. Denman, B. Huebert, T. Jickells, T. Johannessen, G. Komen, D. Kumar, P. Matrai, B. Miller, U. Platt, K. Richardson, P. Schlosser, M. Uematsu, I. Wainer, D. Wallace and C. M. Ryan (2003). The Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study Science Plan and Implementation Strategy, IGBP Report No. 50. [html]