Matheus is an assistant research professor within NASA and University of Maryland mission of “Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation” (GEDI). Before that he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Earth Change Observation Lab of the University of Helsinki, whose research focuses on understanding what controls the structure and function of plant communities. His work uses remote sensing and field surveys to explore how tropical vegetation responds to global changes. His current project revolves around the use of terrestrial LiDAR to predict the effects of climate and degradation on tree canopies and ecosystem functioning in the Amazon, Borneo and Kenya’s forests. He received his PhD in Plant Sciences from the University of Cambridge in March 2019, where he used airborne LiDAR and field spectroscopy to investigate forest responses to El Niño events and oil palm expansion.
Publications
Gorgens, E.B., Nunes, M.H., Jackson, T., Coomes, D., Keller, M., Reis, C.R., Valbuena, R., Rosette, J., Almeida, D.R.A., Gimenez, B. and Cantinho, R.Z., 2020. Resource availability and disturbance shape maximum tree height across the Amazon. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.15.097683
Gorgens, E.B., Motta, A.Z., Assis, M., Nunes, M.H., Jackson, T., Coomes, D., Rosette, J., Aragão, L.E.O.E.C. and Ometto, J.P., 2019. The giant trees of the Amazon basin. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 17(7), pp.373-374. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2085
Nunes, M.H., Both, S., Bongalov, B., Brelsford, C., Khoury, S., Burslem, D.F., Philipson, C., Majalap, N., Riutta, T., Coomes, D.A. and Cutler, M.E., 2019. Changes in leaf functional traits of rainforest canopy trees associated with an El Niño event in Borneo. Environmental Research Letters, 14(8), p.085005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2eae
Padfield, R., Hansen, S., Davies, Z.G., Ehrensperger, A., Slade, E.M., Evers, S., Papargyropoulou, E., Bessou, C., Abdullah, N., Page, S. and Ancrenaz, M., 2019. Co-producing a research agenda for sustainable palm oil. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2, p.13. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00013
Rose, D.C., Sutherland, W.J., Amano, T., González‐Varo, J.P., Robertson, R.J., Simmons, B.I., Wauchope, H.S., Kovacs, E., Durán, A.P., Vadrot, A.B. and Wu, W., 2018. The major barriers to evidence‐informed conservation policy and possible solutions. Conservation letters, 11(5), p.e12564. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12564
Nunes, M.H., de Castro Nunes Santos Terra, M., de Oliveira, I.R.C. and van den Berg, E., 2018. The influence of disturbance on driving carbon stocks and tree dynamics of riparian forests in Cerrado. Journal of Plant Ecology, 11(3), pp.401-410. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpe/rtx007
Nunes, M.H., Ewers, R.M., Turner, E.C. and Coomes, D.A., 2017. Mapping aboveground carbon in oil palm plantations using LiDAR: A comparison of tree-centric versus area-based approaches. Remote Sensing, 9(8), p.816. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9080816
Nunes, M., Davey, M. and Coomes, D., 2017. On the challenges of using field spectroscopy to measure the impact of soil type on leaf traits. Biogeosciences. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-3371-2017
Nunes, M.H. and Görgens, E.B., 2016. Artificial intelligence procedures for tree taper estimation within a complex vegetation mosaic in Brazil. PloS one, 11(5), p.e0154738. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154738
Forest Ecology and Conservation Group 