Interests and expertise
I am a fourth year student studying Biology (MBiol) at the University of Oxford and conducting Master’s research under the supervision of Dr Emily Warner. My research concerns evaluating the impacts of natural forest regeneration on the woodland ecosystem. Particularly, my interests focus on how natural tree establishment alters soil carbon levels, soil community and above ground invertebrate biodiversity. My research involves comparing metrics like topsoil carbon, fungal community composition and invertebrate species diversity across land at different levels of forest establishment. The aim of this work is to determine whether natural tree establishment is associated with the same initial losses to soil carbon as conventional planting approaches. Hopefully, this work will better inform forest expansion policy on the optimum methods to establish higher tree cover in the UK.
Background
Over the course of my undergraduate degree I was drawn towards conservation, sustainability and the interface between industry and environment. The Nature-based Solutions Initiative interests me for it’s emphasis on achieving holistic goals for both the environment and people, therefore bridging the two directly. I firmly believe it is only through identifying such mutually beneficial solutions that we can effectively and sustainably mitigate climate change in a time where human demand for resources continues to grow.
Previously, I completed an internship with Operation Wallacea, where I statistically evaluated data sets drawn from coral reefs around Utah. My work focussed on studying the impact of local fishing activity on large predators and how a solution could be found to both rehabilitate their numbers without detrimentally affecting the local fishing industry.