Research group

Arne Scheire – NERC PhD student

Arne is a forest ecologist with a interest in the functioning, conservation and management of tropical rainforests.  Arne is studying how tree height influences the functioning of the world’s tallest tropical rainforest species, with fieldwork taking place in Borneo . This involves looking at how water transport in the world’s largest trees is influenced by changes in hydraulic traits, particularly leaf hydraulic traits.

Trisha Gopalakrishna – NERC post Doctoral Researcher

Trisha specialises in using remote sensing approaches to understand the land-use and restoration potential within savannas across Brazil and India. In particular she is interested in what may be controlling threshold for vegetation shifts within this important biome.

Leonardo Medeiros – CASPER funded PhD Student

Working in silvopasture systems in the Arc of deforestation in Southern Brazil, Leonardo is studying the mechanisms through which native legume tree species can increase the productivity and fertility of pastures for small holder farmers.

Adler Santana de Medeiros– CASPER funded PhD Student

Adler focuses on understanding how soil legacy effects from former agricultural use of land impact restoration success in the Brazlian Cerrado Biome. Specifically he is exploring the soil microbial communities which exist across native vegetation and pasture systems and how restoration techniques alter the soil microbial community.

Patricia de Britto Costa – Post-doctoral Researcher 

Patricia is an experienced field ecologist specializing in soil to root feedbacks in tropical ecosystems. She is currently working within the CASPER- Carbon Storage in Pastures through Ecological Restoration project to understand how interactions between native and exotic grass species controls plant to soil feedbacks and therefore soil legacy effects in restoration projects within the Brazilian Cerrado.

Raissa Leite Jardim– CASPER funded PhD Student

Raissa’s research focuses on understanding the ecosystem services delivered by native plants within Cerrado pasture systems. Specifically she is focusing on the how the existence of and mode of reproduction of native plants varies between productive and degraded pastures and how this may impact key services like Carbon storage.

Mateus Silva – Post-doctoral Researcher 

An experienced functional ecologist who undertook a PhD funded by WWF to understand how to use knowledge of plant function to enhance our capacity to restore Cerrado vegetation. Now Mateus is a Met Office CSSP funded post-doc, working on the impact of drought and drought recovery on saplings at the world’s longest running tropical rainforest drought experiment site in , Caxiuana, in NE Brazil.

Rosie Clegg – NERC Funded PhD student

Rosie is studying the biodiversity, biogeography and conservation of inselberg and rock outcrop flora in the dry biomes of Latin America, focusing on the areas across Bolivia and Brazil.  She aims document the flora and understand the evolutionary processes that shaped these environments.

Kennedy Lewis – Postdoctoral Researcher

Kennedy is using a mixture of remote sensing and eddy covariance techniques to explore the carbon and water cycling impacts of different land-use types across the Brazilian Cerrado. Working on the CASPER- Carbon Storage in Pastures through Ecological Restoration project, she aims to understand how different land management practices alter the carbon and water fluxes within ecosystems.

Dr. Fernanda Barros – Lecturer and research fellow

Fernanda is a biologist with background in plant ecology and ecophysiology, with a specific interest in understanding the connection of plant function with species evolution and geographic distribution. She is currently working on a CASPER- Carbon Storage in Pastures through Ecological Restoration project, to understand how native plants can be used to enhance the sustainable use of pastures to support conservation and restoration in Brazilian.

Dr. Paulo Bittencourt– NERC Researcher CoI

Paulo is a researcher CoI on a NERC standard grant to study hydraulic scaling in some of the world’s tallest tropical rainforest trees. He will be studying the how water transport in large trees is influenced by changes in hydraulic traits with tree height. His studies sites are across Malaysia and Brazil, across which he aims to understand how climate and tree structure alters water transport efficiency and vulnerability to drought stress.