My desire as an early career ecologist is to advance our understanding about tropical forests through a plant ecophysiological perspective. Thus my broader focus is on Ecophysiology which is the study of how the environment, both physical and biological, interacts with the physiology of an organism. It includes the effects of climate and nutrients on physiological processes in both plants and animals, and has a particular focus on how physiological processes scale with organism size. My doctoral research focuses on the functional trait analysis related to the drought tolerance of tropical tree species. I use ecophysiological research techniques to elucidate the mechanisms and responses of tree species to drought, which is essential for predicting the resilience and responses of tropical forests to climate change. I use China’s seasonal karst forests closer to Vietnam, a peculiar and threatened ecosystem of high biodiversity as an experimental model. This landscape is dominated by towering and jagged peaks of limestone outcrops, which are often depicted in many traditional Chinese paintings. In these rainforests the soil dries faster in hilly peaks resulting in a temporary water stress. I believe that these areas of research and answering key questions are imperative to predict impacts from global climate change on tropical forests.
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