The greatest threat to biodiversity today is habitat loss. In Southeast Asia, this is largely driven by increasing demand for palm oil, and fragmentation of forests for this cash crop causes both biotic and abiotic changes in local environments. I am interested in teasing apart top-down and bottom-up factors influencing responses to this human-induced disturbance, and identifying which abiotic factors best predict biodiversity.
The majority of this research takes place under the umbrella of the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project in Malaysian Borneo. Here, I examine how conversion of primary forest to oil palm plantation affects primary productivity and community composition. A range of experimental riparian buffer sizes in this landscape are helping to determine how plantation design can maximize both terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity within an oil palm matrix. I am identifying the proximate causes of changes in diversity, and determining the relationship between stream primary productivity, terrestrial productivity, and anuran abundance and diversity.
This research provides novel insights into local-scale predictors of diversity of this unique group, as amphibian abundance and diversity may be influenced both by stream productivity (tadpoles) and terrestrial productivity (adults). Additionally, this work provides a unique opportunity to utilize ecological research to immediately influence biodiversity preservation through its partnership between scientists and the world’s largest producer of palm oil, which has pledged to implement research findings into plantation design around the globe. By balancing biodiversity preservation and economic development, this work links conservation biology with social issues and allows for collaboration with social scientists and economists.
The majority of this research takes place under the umbrella of the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project in Malaysian Borneo. Here, I examine how conversion of primary forest to oil palm plantation affects primary productivity and community composition. A range of experimental riparian buffer sizes in this landscape are helping to determine how plantation design can maximize both terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity within an oil palm matrix. I am identifying the proximate causes of changes in diversity, and determining the relationship between stream primary productivity, terrestrial productivity, and anuran abundance and diversity.
This research provides novel insights into local-scale predictors of diversity of this unique group, as amphibian abundance and diversity may be influenced both by stream productivity (tadpoles) and terrestrial productivity (adults). Additionally, this work provides a unique opportunity to utilize ecological research to immediately influence biodiversity preservation through its partnership between scientists and the world’s largest producer of palm oil, which has pledged to implement research findings into plantation design around the globe. By balancing biodiversity preservation and economic development, this work links conservation biology with social issues and allows for collaboration with social scientists and economists.
My field work for this project includes regular surveys of tadpole and adult amphibian abundance and diversity, measures of aquatic primary productivity, and more recently, radiotelemetry of individual frogs to determine home range size and movement patterns of amphibians in the experimental riparian buffer zones, as well as in control (undisturbed) sites. Movement data are essential for understanding spatial ecology of resident species, which is imperative for understanding long-term impacts of riparian buffer size on genetic isolation.
I am working to expand the scope of this work to examine multiple taxonomic groups across a larger spatial scale, to determine whether primary productivity continues to reliably predict biodiversity in highly fragmented landscapes, or whether there are stronger predictors of diversity.
The ultimate aim of this research is to test predictions of amphibian abundance and diversity based on known aquatic and terrestrial productivity, in order to predict areas likely to be of high conservation value on a regional scale, and to minimize oil palm development where biodiversity is greatest.
I am working to expand the scope of this work to examine multiple taxonomic groups across a larger spatial scale, to determine whether primary productivity continues to reliably predict biodiversity in highly fragmented landscapes, or whether there are stronger predictors of diversity.
The ultimate aim of this research is to test predictions of amphibian abundance and diversity based on known aquatic and terrestrial productivity, in order to predict areas likely to be of high conservation value on a regional scale, and to minimize oil palm development where biodiversity is greatest.