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RESEARCH
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Soil/litter invertebrates and nutrient cycling/sequestration
Invertebrates living in soil and leaf litter consume dead plant material, and in so doing convert nutrients into minerals that can be reabsorbed by plants or stored in soils as organic matter. This process is vital to the functioning of natural ecosystems, but is often disrupted in urban ecosystems.
Our research is focused on:
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Understanding how soil/litter invertebrate diversity contributes to nutrient mineralization and sequestration in natural and managed habitats
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Understanding how soil/litter invertebrate functional traits affect their ability to break down different types of plant litter in natural and managed habitats
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Describing soil/litter invertebrate diversity in Singapore and the region
Ecosystem functions of biodiverse urban soils
The soils in urban green spaces perform many vital ecosystem functions, even if these functions are significantly reduced from those in natural and remnant habitat patches. Plant, litter/soil invertebrate, and litter/soil microbe biodiversity are likely to enhance these ecosystem functions. However, we know neither the extent to which ecosystem functions are lost in urban green spaces nor the degree to which biodiversity enhancing interventions (such as the planting of native tree species or invertebrate rewilding) may restore these ecosystem functions to novel urban ecosystems.
Our research is focused on:
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Describing patterns of litter/soil invertebrate/microbe distributions across remnant and managed vegetation types in Southeast Asian cities
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Evaluating the effectiveness of biodiversity enhancing interventions on restoring ecosystem functioning to urban green spaces
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Invertebrate rewilding
Modern cities are increasingly incorporating greenery into urban spaces. However, many of these green spaces contain only common and widely dispersed generalist taxa. As a result, many urban green spaces have severely reduced ecosystem functions (disrupted energy and nutrient cycles) that would otherwise be present in natural habitats that are populated by diverse animal populations. Invertebrate rewilding is an attractive strategy for restoring ecosystem function to such habitats, but its feasibility and effectiveness remain largely untested.
Our research is focused on:
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Evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of invertebrate rewilding in different types of urban green spaces
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Developing protocols for successful invertebrate rewilding that result in resilient and healthy urban ecosystems
Novel applications of plant traits to ecosystem management
Functional traits are useful predictors of plant responses to, and effects on, the environment. Many plant trait databases have been established over the years, and our understanding of traits has grown tremendously. However, this growth in scientific knowledge has not yet translated into trait-informed decision making in conservation, park management and policy making. Our research is focused on identifying and testing novel applications of plant traits to ecosystem management in modern cities.
Plant traits and litter feedbacks
Tropical plants produce and shed large amounts of leaves, wood, flowers and fruits all year round, and the production and decomposition of such plant parts represent a large nutrient flow pathway in natural ecosystems. Differences in physicochemical properties of these litter affect the kinds of microorganisms and invertebrates that can feed on them, and the amounts of nutrients that can be released from them back into soils. This feedback loop is known as “litter feedback”, and is likely to play a significant role in determining the long-term stable states of ecosystems.
Our research is focused on:
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Understanding how plant traits affect microbe and invertebrate communities in soil and litter
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Understanding how nutrient return patterns differ between natural and managed vegetation types