National University of Singapore, Department of Geography
My research focuses on the recovery of forests and trees in human-modified landscapes. Together with many collaborators, I study how fast structure, diversity and ecosystem functions (such as carbon and water) of tropical forests recover during ecological succession, how this varies at the landscape scale and the local and landscape-scale processes that drive both temporal change and spatial heterogeneity during tropical forest regeneration.
My main study sites are in the Panama Canal Watershed, where I co-lead a long-term study on secondary forest dynamics and collaborate in a liana removal experiment and a nutrient addition experiment, both in 1-40y old secondary forests), and in a long-term native mixed species reforestation experiment. In Singapore I study the ecology and dynamics of strongly disturbed mangrove forests in an urban environment, and the services provided by urban trees and greenery.
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