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Linking secondary succession of carbon stocks and biodiversity to land use history in tropical forests
Supervisor: Carlos Peres (ENV)
Started: September 2023
Douglas Houston is a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholar at the University of East Anglia as part of the Critical Decade programme. His research interests involve understanding the impacts of anthropological activity on biodiversity and ecosystems services in tropical forests. Douglas’s PhD project investigates how previous land use affects carbon sequestration and the return of biodiversity in secondary forests in the western Amazon.
Douglas recently obtained an MSc in Conservation Biology at the University of Kent. His research project adopted an ecological modelling program to simulate the dispersal of orangutans through a mixed landscape of oil palm plantation and tropical forest in Borneo. The aim was to determine whether ecological corridors could improve the viability of sub-populations living within the plantations. The project was a collaboration between local NGOs, academia and the oil palm industry, in the hope of stimulating cooperation and compromise.
Douglas’s professional life has so far been in the pharmaceutical industry, where he spent 12 years supporting NHS patients receive innovative treatments through clinical trials, particularly in oncology. A trip to eastern Indonesia in 2017, inspired by Alfred Russel Wallace's travelogue The Malay Archipelago, convinced him pursue his passion for the natural world and a career in biodiversity conservation.
What are you most excited about in joining the Critical Decade PhD programme?
I am very excited to be part of the CDCC program. The program is a unique opportunity to contribute to the understanding of secondary forest restoration, and develop local, regional and landscape level solutions for biodiversity conservation and amelioration of climate change. To be able to contribute to the most urgent and pressing issues of our time is a privilege and honour.