Final Activity Report Summary - KITE (York institute for tropical ecosystem dynamics) The York Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Dynamics (KITE) has been focusing on the hottest of the biodiversity hotspot - the Eastern Arc Mountains to understand how the biodiversity concentration has been formed, how this is manifested over time and space, how this will change in the future and how to use such information to guide the management and policy development. KITE has been exploring the relationship between ecosystem dynamics, climate change, and human impacts in East Africa by integrating palaeoecology (past) species distribution (present) and a bioclimatic model developed to investigate changing plant biodiversity under varying climatic scenarios. KITE has promoted innovation in areas that are both discipline specific and more generic such as linking palaeoecological results with bioclimatic modelling and linking local scale findings with broader scale application such as policy development. In addition the research activity has allowed for the transfer of methodologies, data analysis and ecosystem modelling techniques to collaborating institutions in Kenya and Tanzania, thus demonstrating that the European Research Area provides opportunity for scientific progress for the benefit of Europe and for the rest of the world. At the heart of KITE has been the weaving together of numerous complimentary research stands to form a complete understanding on ecosystem dynamics and response to environmental change; so that findings on the magnitude of ecosystem change and associated societal impacts can move from the scientific to policy arena.KITE has encouraged better research networking and dissemination of knowledge between Europe and Africa, as well as better access to data sets for researchers in Africa. Research excellence will be developed in global change research in its broadest sense with expansions to horizontal developments that have implications for policy and science not just within the research area.Specifically KITE has1) Determined ecosystem response to climate change by focusing on an area of particularly high biodiversity.2) Determined the role of human impacts on present forest composition and long-term ecosystem functioning.3) Determined methods to link site-scale fossil data to landscape.4) Developed and tested models to link past, present and future ecosystem functioning at different spatial and temporal scales.5) Produce results to inform management and policy formation both in the study area and more generically.
