Biography
The Harapan Rainforest (Hutan Harapan) represents more than 20 per cent of the remaining lowland forest in Sumatra but is in a degraded condition due to historic exploitative timber extraction and under threat from illegal oil palm expansion. This is a significant land management problem. The silvicultural techniques necessary to restore the forest, while realising the commercial and natural capital of the land are not well understood. My work is focused on finding cost-effective, research-driven solutions to direct management. Primarily this involves the establishment of large scale silvicultural experiments, optimising survey techniques (both traditional and remote sensing) and modelling species distributions. I support the research at Harapan, through coordination with the department manager Elva Gemita and her staff. In addition, I work closely with a wide group of visiting researchers, collaborators and government officials. I am an experienced tropical forest researcher with a strong statistical and data management background. A large part of my work involves training Harapan staff in these skills and ensuring the use of optimised sampling/experimental designs.
Research
Tom is investigating how human activity alters the functioning and restoration potential of tropical landscapes.
Publications
“Testing the Janzen‐Connell mechanism: pathogens cause overcompensating density dependence in a tropical tree,” R Bagchi, T Swinfield, RE Gallery, OT Lewis, S Gripenberg, L Narayan, Ecology letters 13 (10), 1262-1269
“The need for long‐term remedies for Indonesia's forest fires,” RA Chisholm, LS Wijedasa, T Swinfield, Conservation Biology 30 (1), 5-6
“Consequences of changing rainfall for fungal pathogen‐induced mortality in tropical tree seedlings,” T Swinfield, OT Lewis, R Bagchi, RP Freckleton, Ecology and Evolution 2 (7), 1408-1413
“Restoration of logged humid tropical forests: An experimental programme at Harapan Rainforest, Indonesia,” RD Harrison, T Swinfield, Tropical Conservation Science 8 (1), 4-16
“Accelerating tropical forest restoration through the selective removal of pioneer species,” T Swinfield, R Afriandi, F Antoni, RD Harrison, Forest ecology and management 381, 209-216
“Canopy structure and topography jointly constrain the microclimate of human‐modified tropical landscapes,” T Jucker, SR Hardwick, S Both, DMO Elias, RM Ewers, DT Milodowski, Global change biology 24 (11), 5243-5258
“Accurate Measurement of Tropical Forest Canopy Heights and Aboveground Carbon Using Structure From Motion,” T Swinfield, JA Lindsell, JV Williams, RD Harrison, E Gemita, Remote Sensing 11 (8), 928
“Occurrence of blood‐feeding terrestrial leeches (Haemadipsidae) in a degraded forest ecosystem and their potential as ecological indicators,” R Drinkwater, J Williamson, T Swinfield, NJ Deere, MJ Struebig, EL Clare, Biotropica
“Reconciling the contribution of environmental and stochastic structuring of tropical forest diversity through the lens of imaging spectroscopy,” B Bongalov, DFRP Burslem, T Jucker, SED Thompson, J Rosindell, Ecology letters
“Three-dimensional Segmentation of Trees Through a Flexible Multi-Class Graph Cut Algorithm (MCGC),” J Williams, CB Schönlieb, T Swinfield, J Lee, X Cai, L Qie, DA Coomes, arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.08481
“Restoration of tropical rain forest success improved by selecting species for specific microhabitats,” R Kardiman, R Afriandi, LH Schmidt, A Ræbild, T Swinfield, Forest ecology and management 434, 235-243