Where the little things are: understorey plant megadiversity across scales

Are you interested in travelling to Indonesia, mapping biodiversity, and making environmental science more equitable? This project focuses on understudied rainforest diversity—the understorey plant community. While trees structurally dominate rainforests, herbaceous plants contribute as much as half of the plant diversity. Conserving rainforests requires a better understanding of these species, especially given the threats of deforestation, development, and agriculture in Indonesia. The project addresses two questions, you may choose to focus on one, or both:

1. How can we monitor and conserve understory plant diversity through local and global plot networks? The aim is to develop a standardized, globally actionable method to survey herbaceous diversity using small plots in Indonesian rainforests in Borneo, Wallacea, or New Guinea.
2. What are the major patterns and drivers of herbaceous diversity from regional to global scales? Using GIS and computational methods, you will explore the drivers of understorey plant diversity at regional (tropical Indo-Pacific) and global scales.

You will also help develop workshops on plant surveying and identification in Indonesia and London, supporting underrepresented communities and training future botanists. Project outcomes will help incorporate herbaceous diversity into conservation planning, aiding the achievement of the Convention on Biological Diversity Target 3—protecting 30% of Earth by 2030.