Matheus is 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

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