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Matthew Waldram
Postgraduate Researcher
Contact Details
- Tel: 0116 252 2251
- Email: msw13@le.ac.uk
- Fax: 0116 252 3854
- Office: Bennett Building G23
PhD in Physical Geography
Application of remote sensing to monitor tropical deforestation: impacts on tropical carbon balance.
My PhD is based in Indonesia where I am investigating the degradation of peat swamp forests. Peat swamps forests are biodiversity hotspots, are important for regional water regulation and support populations of endangered species such as Orangutans and Gibbons. They also contain large amounts of carbon in both the living rain forest and in thick layers of underlying peat. 70% of tropical peatlands are found in SE Asia, however they are being rapidly degraded by a combination of logging, peat drainage and fire which results in large emissions of carbon to the atmosphere.
My project aims to develop ways in which forest degradation can be monitored over large areas by combing field data collected on the ground with optical and radar remote sensing data. This data will be used to develop a better understanding of the local carbon balance.
My supervisors are: Dr. S.E. Page and Dr. K.J. Tansey.
I graduated with a B.Sc. in zoology from the University of Wales, Swansea in 1996, and spent the next four years working on badger ecology projects in Gloucestershire, (North Nibley & 
Woodchester Park). I also spent 1998 in the Tambopata region of the Peruvian Amazon doing biodiversity surveys, tour guiding and studying frogs.
In 2000 I first went to Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Reserve, in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa to work on a project studying African buffalo and I returned to work for the Botany Dept, University of Cape Town from 2001-2008, when I helped co-managed the Zululand Grass Project and its successor the Zululand Tree Project. Both investigated the relative importance of drivers such as fire, herbivory and climate upon savanna vegetation dynamics. I also completed my M.Sc. in botany which investigated the interactions between large bodied grazers, grass, fire and smaller herbivores.
Publications
Staver, A.C., Bond, W.J., Stock, W.D., van Rensburg, S.J., Waldram, M.S., (2009). Browsing and fire interact to suppress tree density in an African savanna. Ecological Applications, 19, 1909-1919.
Waldram, M. (2008). The Breeding Biology of Ranitomeya biolat in the Tambopata region of Amazonian Peru. Journal of Herpetology, 42(2), 232-237
Waldram M., Bond W.J., Stock W.D. (2008). Ecological engineering by a Mega-Grazer: White Rhino impacts on a South African savanna. Ecosystems, 11(1), 101-112.
Cramer, M. D., Chimphango, S.B.M., Van Cauter, A., Waldram, M.S., Bond, W. J., (2007). Grass competition induces N2 fixation in some species of African Acacia. Journal of Ecology, 95, 1123-1133.
Delahay, R.J., Waldram. M., Mallinson, P.J., Spyvee, P.D., Handoll, D., de Leeuw, A.N.S., Cheeseman, C.L., (2003). Response to Tuyttens, Macdonald and Roddam (2003). Journal of Zoology, 260, p119.
