Professor David Coomes

Conserving the world’s dwindling biological diversity is one of the most pressing issues facing mankind. I lead a research group that is actively engaged in addressing these issues, as well as tackling more fundamental ecological questions. Focussing on forest conservation and ecology, my research uses large databases and modern computational approaches, alongside traditional field approaches. Our research includes:

• Assessing the impact of land-use change on carbon and biodiversity using remote sensing 
• Measuring carbon storage in forests using air-borne and space-borne technologies
• Evaluating the success of carbon projects aimed at reducing deforestation in developing countries 
• Researching the effects of introduced organisms on forest communities and developing control strategies
• Using geo-referenced plant-location data and global climate surfaces to understand the effects of climate change on biological diversity and trait evolution
• Developing new biological scaling theories, and confirming their significance by statistical analyses of forest inventory data
• Parameterising simulation models to examine the responses of forests to environmental change