Prof. Michiel VAN BREUGEL
Michiel’s research focuses on the ecology and role of forest and trees in human-modified landscapes. He is broadly interested in understanding how human land-use and ecological processes interact to shape plant community dynamics and affect the provision of ecosystem services in and across different landscapes. Michiel uses approaches from population, community and trait ecology to evaluate the dynamics of plant communities and populations and their drivers and works with complementary study systems that range from controlled experiments to long-term monitoring of natural forest dynamics.
His main research sites are in the Panama Canal Watershed, in Singapore and Antananariva, Madagascar. In Panama, he co-leads one of the largest long-term secondary forest dynamics study in the Tropics and related experimental studies on the role of lianas and N2 fixing tree species. In Singapore he studies the distribution and dynamics of mangrove species along major environmental gradients and ecosystem services of urban trees and greenery. In the context of the “Resilient blue-green infrastructures” project in Madagascar, his research will contribute to the quantification of ecosystem services of trees and tree-dominated vegetation along the urban-rural gradient.
Research Interests:
- ecology and functions of forests and trees in rural and urban landscapes
- ecosystem services
- ecological succession
- forest dynamics
- plant functional traits
- biodiversity
- plant ecology
Publications:
View Michiel's full list of publications external pagehere.
Education:
- 2007: Ph.D. from C.T. de Wit Graduate School for Production Ecology & Resource Conservation at Wageningen University and Research (WUR), the Netherlands.
- 1997: M.Sc. Forest and Nature Management, WUR
Affliation:
- Environmental Studies, Yale-NUS College (YNC)
- Department of Biological Sciences (DBS) National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
- Research Associate, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama