Tropical Environmental Change

Research in the Tropical Environmental Change (TEC) group spans the full breadth of physical geography, with a focus on how natural processes and human activities interact to shape tropical environments and beyond. We work across a range of spatial and temporal scales — from local climates to regional ecosystems and global change, and from short-term disturbances to long-term environmental transformations. We study diverse terrestrial and coastal ecosystems, including forests, peatland, mangroves, corals, rivers, urban landscapes, and atmospheric and space systems, and investigate processes such as biogeochemical and hydrological cycling, plant community dynamics, geomorphological and coastal dynamics, climate variability, and the links between environment and human health.

Our strength lies in the diverse range of techniques that we employ: from fieldwork and detailed laboratory analyses, long-term monitoring plots, to advanced statistical modelling, GIS and remote sensing and geo-AI, and the integration of theory and simulation models. This interdisciplinary toolkit allows us to reveal the drivers and consequences of environmental change across multiple dimensions. By combining insights from fine-scale empirical observations with large-scale geospatial and temporal analyses, our research directly informs urban planning, coastal protection, conservation and restoration strategies, resource management and climate adaptation policies.