Aloysius finished his PhD in our lab several years ago, and another chapter from his thesis has just been published. The paper reports on work he did assessing leaf litter turnover and nutrient dynamics in forests in Singapore, looking at differences between old-growth forests and novel forests. The novel forests have arisen in the last few decades from cleared farmland and villages. His main findings were that leaf litter decays much faster in novel forests than in old-growth forests, resulting in a litter pool only one third the size, and that phosphorus is highly elevated in the litter of novel forests. The differences may be attributable to dominance of exotic tree species in novel forests. The reduced litter pools in novel forests have negative consequences for ecosystem carbon balance and climate change mitigation. This may have broad relevance because of the increasing prevalence of novel forests across the tropics.

Teo, A, T. A. Evans, and R. A. Chisholm. Elevated litterfall phosphorus reduces litter and soil organic matter pools in exotic-dominated novel forests in Singapore. Journal of Tropical Ecology. 2024;40:e4