Welcome to the Plant Ecology Lab at the University of Cape Town!

Our mission is to improve our fundamental understanding of African ecosystems and translate that knowledge into tools to assist the management and conservation of their biodiversity and contributions to people.

Current Lab Members

Hannah Chan-Henry

BSc Honours candidate exploring forest dynamics and forecasting tree mortality in the Knysna Forest. Co-supervised by Res Altwegg.

Savanna Ehlers

MSc candidate exploring the changes in fire in the Cape Floristic Region.

Sarah Frances Visser

MSc candidate studying the demography of invasive pines within the Western Cape.

Tim Muthama

MSc candidate mapping and monitoring plant structural diversity using active remote sensing.

Nicholas Limbert

MSc candidate exploring efficient fire spread modelling to simulate spatial burn scars and estimate burn probabilities.

Amour McCarthy

MSc candidate exploring the need for local knowledge in developing global data products to inform environmental management.

Ashleigh Smith

MSc candidate working on ecological condition mapping using the AVIRIS-NG imaging spectroscopy data collected during the NASA BioSCape Campaign.

Tallulah Rose Glasby

PhD candidate exploring the ecological niche of Milkwood trees (Sideroxylon inerme) and the potential relationship between genotypes and leaf and canopy spectral profiles. Co-supervised by Alastair Potts (NMU).

Hana Petersen

PhD candidate exploring the mechanisms by which climate change impacts plant community diversity across Mediterranean Climate Ecosystems. Co-supervised by Ryan Blanchard (SAEON).

Samukelisiwe Msweli

PhD candidate mapping landscape flammability in the Cape Floristic Region by linking plant level flammability metrics from experimental burns with plant traits and trait maps from imaging spectroscopy.

Áine Nicholson

Áine is a visiting PhD candidate from Charles Darwin University working on ignition catchments and vegetation change in the Western Ghats. She’s supervised by Lindsay Hutley, Jayashree Ratnam and Mahesh Sankaran, and collaborating with Glenn Moncrieff and I.

Simcelile Chenge

Postdoc exploring leaf and canopy reflectance spectra in Fynbos functional types.

Jasper Slingsby

Principal Investigator

Following my PhD exploring the interface between ecology and evolution in the Cape Floristic Region, I worked at the Fynbos Node of the South African Environmental Observation Network for almost a decade, focusing on global change and long term ecological research in African ecosystems. My current research blends the two, following the ethos that understanding the origins of diversity is essential if we are to understand how ecosystems function, how they are being altered by global change, and how best to manage them for desirable outcomes.

Former Lab Members (incomplete list)

Kagiso Nhlapo

MSc candidate mapping hydrological refugia in the Cape Floristic Region. Co-supervised by Tony Verboom.

Anabelle Cardoso

Postdoc (University at Buffalo and University of Cape Town)

Anabelle is the Science Team Manager for the NASA BioSCape Campaign

Cherie Forbes

Postdoc (University at Buffalo and University of Cape Town)

Cherie was the Applications Coordinator for the NASA BioSCape Campaign

Geethen Singh

Postdoc (University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University & SAEON)

Geethen was mapping invasive species, fire scars and other related phenomena using satellite data and machine learning.