Yadvinder Malhi

There is much interest in how sensitive or resilient tropical forests are to climate change, logging and degradation. The student will be part of a research group that is conducting pioneering research on the functioning of both intact and human-modified tropical forests around the world. We apply rigorous environmental science to understand how we can maximise resilience and viability of tropical forests in the context of the Anthropocene, and in building the scientific capacity of tropical forest nations. The details of any DPhil project would be defined in discussion with the student, but are likely to entail a significant ecological or ecophysiological component of fieldwork in one or more tropical sites, and could also involve computational modelling of tropical forest environments, airborne and satellite remote sensing, and laboratory or field experiments.  There is also potential for interdisciplinary projects looking at the social and ecological aspects of change in tropical regions. Potential student projects could nest into ongoing research in Peru, Brazil, Ghana, Gabon, Ethiopia and Malaysia, as well at Oxford’s local research woodland in Wytham Woods.