Ecosystems Lab

Our research aims to understand how contemporary ecosystems function, and how they are affected by global atmospheric change and anthropogenic activity.

The Ecosystems Laboratory, led by Prof. Yadvinder Malhi, seeks to understand how contemporary ecosystems function and how they may be affected by direct human pressures and global atmospheric change. This work spans the natural and social sciences, and the tools we employ in our research include:

• Intensive field observation of carbon, water and nutrient cycling; vegetation and soil properties; plant ecophysiology; and climate.
• Multi decadal and large scale monitoring and analysis of ecosystem structure, composition and dynamics.
• Interdisciplinary studies of socio-ecological systems at agricultural and forest frontiers.
• Quantitative modelling of ecosystem ecophysiology and biogeochemical cycling.
• Satellite remote sensing at local, regional and global scales.
• Macro-ecological analysis of plant function and traits.

Our interests are global, but we have particularly active research in tropical forests and savannas around the world, also in our local field site at Wytham Woods.