Welcome to Oxfordecosystems!
We are the Ecosystems Research Programme at the University of Oxford. Our research aims to understand how contemporary ecosystems function, and how they are affected by global atmospheric change and anthropogenic activity. The Oxford ecosystems lab is led by Yadvinder Malhi and Jesus Aguirre Gutierrez, and has a portfolio of projects which investigate ecosystem function and structure, traits, water and nutrient cycling; vegetation and soil properties; and plant ecophysiology. We carry out intensive field observations of carbon, 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, and macro-ecological analysis of plant function and traits.
Our work takes place all around the world, all the way from Oxford's Wytham Woods to locations across the tropics, in Africa, Asia and South America. A map of our research plots is available on the Global Ecosystems Monitoring Network website.
The Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests
OCFT is a network which brings together all those in the Oxford region with an interest in tropical forests, including university departments, NGOs, businesses and the interested wider public. We hold seminars almost every week during term time followed by informal opportunities to mingle and network, to which all are welcome. To sign up to our mailing list please contact jane.applegarth@eci.ox.ac.uk. Podcasts of recent seminars and details of future events are available on the OCTF website.
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery
The ongoing loss and degradation of nature and its biodiversity are amongst the greatest challenges of our time. These trends, driven by increasing but unequal societal demand for food and other ecosystem goods and services, are already having tangible consequences both for the intrinsic fabric of the natural world and the climate system, as well as for human well-being and societal integrity.
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, based at the University of Oxford tackles the challenge of halting and reversing this loss of biodiversity by addressing the ecological, social, cultural and economic dimensions of nature recovery in a single framework, harnessing state-of-the-art technologies and thereby developing and testing an innovative model to deliver nature recovery at scale.
