The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) Programme
The BEFTA Programme investigates management strategies to support biodiversity and ecosystem processes in oil palm landscapes. The overall aim of the BEFTA Programme is to test whether increasing landscape structural complexity can enhance oil palm sustainability at little or no cost to yields and profitability. Uniquely, the BEFTA Programme is a collaboration between universities, research institutes, and the oil palm industry, ensuring that management practices are realistic and implementable by land managers.
Herbivory and vegetation surveys
Although I am back in the lab in Cambridge, other fieldwork is continuing apace. In particular there are ongoing studies on rat populations and small carnivores, studies of herbivory and natural predators, and studies of the understory vegetation and epiphytic plants. Each of these includes work categorising aspects of biodiversity…
Lab work
When people consider ecological research, I think they mostly concentrate on the fieldwork – chasing butterflies and collecting samples. However, although this is certainly an important part of the project (and great fun), much more time in research is spent in entering data, in analysis and, for entomologists, in identification…