The two universities have formed five research groups working in these areas:

1. Bamboo management and optimization, led by Dr. John Innes and Dr. Renyi Gui

Projects

1. Contextualizing Bamboo’s role in ecosystem restoration and local livelihoods in southern India: Past, Present and Future

This study looks at both ecological feasibility (can bamboo grow in a certain area or did grow in the past? How will climate change impact the geographical distribution?) and social impacts (e.g. livelihood and the benefits people get) at local and regional level. It involves modelling and map the potential and actual bamboo growing areas in the selected districts in southern India and identification of  potential restoration areas. It also involves study of how people (villagers, farmers), industries and forest department used bamboo in the past, how the use has changed over time and what are their aspirations for future.

2. Bamboo carbon accounting and carbon credits, led by Dr. Guangyu Wang and Dr. Guomo Zhou

Projects

1. Developing bamboo carbon projects: key challenges, and opportunities

This research aims at analysing the opinions, insights, and perspectives of experts, project developers, enterprises, and government officials, to investigate the role of bamboo carbon projects in mitigating climate change and their challenges and opportunities.

2. Effect of management scenarios on the carbon sink accumulation and tradable carbon credits of the bamboo forest: a simulation model

This research aims to investigate the relationship between the effect of different management approaches and the long-term carbon sink function of the bamboo forest using multiple case studies.

3. Comprehensive analysis of the carbon sink capacity of dragon bamboo forest under different management schemes

This comparative research investigates the carbon sink potential (aboveground and underground carbon pools) between the intensively managed/planted dragon bamboo forest (Dendrocalamus giganteus) and the natural dragon bamboo forest in the next 30 years. This study aims to contribute to our understanding of sympodial bamboo forest carbon sequestration in China, which hinders the development of carbon offset projects in bamboo forests, and potentially hinders the development of carbon forestry in China.

4. Analyze and compare the carbon sequestration capacity between giant sympodial bamboo and between sympodial and monopodial bamboo

This study focuses on a comparative analysis of the ecosystem carbon sequestration potential of sympodial and monopodial bamboo, namely Yunnan dragon bamboo (Dendrocalamus giganteus) and Sichuan Ma bamboo (Dendrocalamus latiflorus), and Zhejiang Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) and green bamboo (Bambusa oldhamii). This study will fulfill gaps in limited research on the carbon sequestration capacity between giant sympodial bamboo and between monopodial and sympodial bamboo with similar diameters. Understanding these mechanisms and processes advances our knowledge of bamboo species selection, stand structure, and tending management and provides a more scientific basis for the future development of carbon projects.

3. Bamboo forest, production and its contributions to local livelihoods, led by Dr. Rob Kozak and Dr. Yueqing Sheng

Projects

1. Grant overview of China’s bamboo forest industry development

The project aims to identify the bamboo industry and its development stages; qualify the bamboo and its contributions to social/economic development at the levels of local, regional, and national development; and map the future direction of bamboo development from the aspects of biodiversity, production, and utilization.

2. The stage identification and spatial-temporal differentiation characteristics of China’s bamboo industry development (preliminary analysis).

The research shows that the bamboo industry is in the growth stage of the industry life cycle. We also focussed on the changes in the spatial pattern of the bamboo industry where Bamboo production centres are gradually shifting from multiple provinces to one province, and the characteristics of regional agglomeration are obvious. This project further looks at the driving mechanism of the spatial-temporal pattern evolution of the bamboo Industry and dynamic changes of the center of gravity of bamboo production.

3. The welfare effects of ecological protection and restoration at the headwaters of the Qianjiang river with the goal of common property.

This research project is investigating changes in the ecological and economic welfare effects of ecological protection and restoration at the headwaters of the Qianjiang river basin community to recommend river basin diversified ecological compensation mechanism and policy system innovation with regional characteristics.

4. Bamboo production, wood-based panel, and life cycle analysis, led by Dr. Chunping Dai and Dr. Wenbiao Zhang

Projects

1. Cellulose nanofibril/PVA/bamboo activated charcoal aerogel sheet with excellent capture for PM2. 5 and thermal stability

2. Intumescent-grafted bamboo charcoal: A natural nontoxic fire-retardant filler for polylactic acid (PLA) composites

5. Bamboo cell and growing mechanisms, led by Dr. Shawn Mansfield and Dr. Wei Zeng

Projects

1. The molecular control of colour formation in the ornamental black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra).

Initial research focused on optimizing the extraction procedure for isolating pigments from the bamboo tissue. This involved testing a variety of different solvents to see which compounds would be removed from bamboo with each solvent. The next stage of the research involved the development of a HPLC and HPLC-MS method for identifying the colour compounds.