The project:

Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population, and one of the major crops for both consumption and as a commodity in Southeast Asia. However, it is also vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and increased temperatures worldwide are predicted to cause reduced crop yields in the future.  

To counteract this, the Climate-ResilientRice project (CRR) aims to strengthen rice breeding programs in Thailand and Laos, so that crops will be able to withstand the effects of climate change, and even enhance production under adverse conditions.

CRR has been funded through the 1st Call of the Southeast Asia-Europe Joint Funding Scheme for for Research and Innovation (JFS) and brings together a team from both regions to tackle this pressing issue.

The Science:

The project will use a varietal improvement process based on the most advanced knowledge of traits which are affected by climate change, such as  high temperatures (that cause yield losses due to rice flowers’ sterility), and use proven methods of marker-assisted selection on a state of the art breeding data-management system.

It will also make use of complementary experimental facilities, including field and greenhouse phenotyping facilities in NAFRI/BIOTEC, respectively, growth chamber facility mimicking high temperature at CIRAD, and molecular marker lab at BIOTEC.

The Team:

The CRR project partners are:

• Rice Gene Discovery Unit, BIOTEC, NSTDA, Pathumthani, Thailand; http://www.biotec.or.th/en (Project Coordinator)
• Agriculture Research Center (ARC),National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), Vientianne, Laos ; www.nafri.org.la
• French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), Montpellier, France; https://www.cirad.fr

Contact:

Jonaliza L. Siangliw: jonaliza.sia@biotec.or.th

The Project:

Mangroves are forests that grow along saline coastal areas with tropical and subtropical climates, and are a crucial part of the natural ecosystem throughout Southeast Asia. They are an indispensable natural resource; mangroves not only act as ‘nurseries’ for marine species and huge carbon storage areas, but they also protect coastal areas from erosion, storms and tsunamis.

Unfortunately, mangroves have come under significant threat from industrial practices, such as shrimp farming and logging, as well as pollutants, chemicals and temperature stress. In Thailand, mangroves have been reduced by almost 50% over the past 4 decades,

The RESCuE project will work to mitigate mangrove forest loss and degradation in Thailand and Vietnam. It will do this by developing databases to understand, conserve and rehabilitate mangrove areas. The team will then work with local communities to identify areas which are suitable for replanting mangroves, and hold trainings and workshops for local practitioners to ensure that the coastal ecosystem management in Thailand and Mekong delta of Vietnam remain sustainable in the future.

The Science

The project will undertake the following activities:

• Developing suitable decision-making tools for mapping and monitoring distribution of mangrove communities and cover loss in the conservation zone using satellite and ground survey data:
• Estimating the mangrove community aboveground carbon stock and its dynamics
• Providing decision support tools for the design of rehabilitation measures
• Developing site-specific recommendations for rehabilitation projects to policy makers
• To recommend the suitable model for ecosystem services in the coastal areas
• Strengthening the capacity of local forest practitioners and disseminating knowledge of local communities via short training and meetings

The Team:

The RESCuE partners are:

• CIRAD, UPR Forests and Societies (F&S), Montpellier, France (https://www.cirad.fr/en) (Project coordinator)
• LETG Rennes COSTEL, France (https://www.univ-rennes2.fr/letg-rennes-costel)
• European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra (VA), Italy (https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/about/jrc-site/ispra)
• Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Environmental Sciences Tharandt, Germany (https://tu-dresden.de/?set_language=en)
• X-ability Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan (http://x-ability.co.jp/en/index.php)
• The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut's University of Technology , Bangkok, Thailand  (http://www.jgsee.kmutt.ac.th/v2/index2.php)
• Department of Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand(http://www.forest.ku.ac.th/forestry/en/index_en.php)
• Department of Land Resource, College of Environment and Natural Resources, Can Tho university, Vietnam (https://cenres.ctu.edu.vn/en/)
• Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand (https://new.forest.go.th/economy/th/ติดต่อเรา-2/)

Contact:

Prof. Valery Gond  (valery.gond@cirad.fr)

Background:

Forests are the carbon banks of the world, playing a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and ensuring that ecosystems and soil are enriched and productive.  

However, the forests of many Southeast Asian countries, including in Thailand, have undergone significant deforestation in recent decades, while the effects of climate change also mean that incidents of climatic water stress - such as droughts and rising temperatures – will become more frequent and severe in the future.

This double threat could lead to rising mortality in the tropical monsoon forests of Southeast Asia. This would mean lower biodiversity, worsening climate change, and damage to entire ecosystems, resulting in real-life effects on human well-being.

The Project:

The CWSSEA (Climatic Water Stress – Southeast Asia) project will study the functioning of tropical forests, particularly secondary forests in Thailand, and assess how they will respond to climatic water stress and the potential impacts of future climate scenarios in these ecosystems.

This information will then assist in creating model predictions on the long-term scenarios of climate change impacts on forest ecosystem services, and influence future global policies to combat climate change.

The Science:

The researchers will measure canopy transpiration, which is frequently used to estimate canopy stomatal conductance; a central variable in modeling the uptake of carbon by forests. Measurements will be made in both mature and secondary forests, which in turn will allow for the investigation of species-specific responses to water stress by assessing tree hydraulics and drought vulnerability of the dominant species in each forest type.

The team will also explore the degree of soil water partitioning among species within each forest to provide a more mechanistic understanding of how individual trees are able to overcome drought stress.

Taken together, this will be one of the first studies to quantify canopy transpiration, tree hydraulics and drought vulnerability as well as the mechanisms dominant tree species in both mature and secondary tropical forests use to overcome drought stress, which will provide the necessary information to more accurately predict how climate change will affect the carbon and water cycle in tropical forests.

The Team:

The CWSSEA partners are:

• Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, www.chula.ac.th
• Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand, www.ku.ac.th
• National Science and Technology Development Agency, Pathum Thani, Thailand, www.nstda.or.th
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden, www.slu.se
• Bordeaux Sciences Agro, Bordeaux, France, www.agro-bordeaux.fr

Contact:

Pantana Tor-ngern: Pantana.t@chula.ac.th