Tropical forests are becoming increasingly fragmented and there is a focus on protecting remaining forest fragments in order to maintain local biodiversity. The emerging threat of non-native invasive species into fragmented landscapes has the potential to cause further forest degradation as well as disrupting agriculture production. There have been only a handful of studies looking at the processes behind tropical forest plant invasion and none that include oil palm plantations.
Emily Waddell is a PhD student at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and working with Professor Jane Hill at the University of York. She is investigating the role of exotic plants within oil palm dominated landscapes, determining, for the first time, what species are found in plantations and how they differ from native species. By identifying the exotic plants, she will highlight potentially harmful species that may have a future negative impact on the oil palm production and the conservation of native forest flora.
Read the publications here:
Evidence of biotic resistance to exotic plant invasion in degraded Bornean forests
Land-use change and propagule pressure promote plant invasions in tropical rainforest remnants
