Kate Heaphy

PhD: Assessing Amazon forest vulnerability and resilience to dry periods across soil moisture & microenvironmental gradients

Location: Bangor University

Email: k.heaphy@bangor.ac.uk

Online profiles:
LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/kateheaphy1
ResearchGate profile: www.researchgate.net/profile/Kate-Heaphy
OrchidID: 0000-0001-5039-0463

Background:

I am a New Zealand ecologist with a background in conservation, invasive species, and landscape-scale ecological connectivity. I have previously completed degrees at the Universities of Otago and Auckland (in New Zealand), and have five years of industry experience, primarily as a practicing consultant specialising in research and development of invasive species management tools. My main research interests are currently focussed on better understanding the impacts of climate change on tropical forests in order to help mitigate them. I also have a keen interest in engaging forms of science communication, including creative non-fiction.

My NERC Envision-funded PhD at Bangor University in Wales investigates drought responses of the Amazon rainforest in areas of differing water table depths, supervised by Drs Marielle Smith, Tyeen Taylor, Simon Willcock (Bangor University), Juliana Schietti (Federal University of Amazonas, UFAM in Brazil), and Scott Stark (Michigan State University, MSU in the USA). I work with both remote sensing data and field observations taken from several forest sites across the Brazilian Amazon.