Profile

I am a Junior Research Fellow in Tropical Forest Science in the Ecosystem Dynamics group within the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford. I received an MSc in Biodiversity & Conservation from the University of Leeds, and subsequently completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh on the effects of drought on carbon cycling and allocation in the Amazon rainforest. My key contribution was to advance our understanding of drought impacts on the, particularly under-studied, below-ground components of the Amazon carbon cycle.

My subsequent post-doctoral research in northern Sweden focused on tracking in detail how, where and when carbon moves through boreal forest after it has been captured by plant photosynthesis. A better understanding of this process is fundamental to predicting the likely impacts of future climate change on this ecosystem, and the efflux of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Current Project

At the moment, as part of a large-scale RAINFOR project, funded by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, I am coordinating research at 17 rainforest plots in 6 sites across the Amazon basin. At these plots, intensive monitoring of forest carbon cycling and allocation will: (1) Provide baseline estimates of current forest carbon storage, and (2) Track ongoing changes in forest carbon cycling. These results will help develop the next generation of coupled atmosphere-biosphere models and guide international climate policy.

Publications

Contact me for offprints of articles.

1. Metcalfe DB. & Kunin WE. (2006) The effects of plant density upon pollination success, reproductive effort and fruit parasitism in Cistus ladanifer L. (Cistaceae). Plant Ecology 185: 41-47.
2. Metcalfe DB et al. (2007) A method for extracting plant roots from soil which facilitates rapid sample processing without compromising measurement accuracy. New Phytologist 174: 697-703.
3. Metcalfe DB et al. (2007) Factors controlling spatio-temporal variation in carbon dioxide efflux from surface litter, roots and soil organic matter at four rain forest sites in the eastern Amazon. Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences Vol. 112, G04001, DOI: 10.1029/2007JG000443.
4. Metcalfe DB et al. (2007) A comparison of methods for converting rhizotron root length measurements into estimates of root mass production per unit ground area. Plant and Soil 301: 279-288.
5. Metcalfe DB et al. (2008) The effects of soil water availability on root growth and morphology in an Amazon rain forest. Plant & Soil 311: 189-199
6. Metcalfe DB et al. (2008) Sample sizes for estimating key ecosystem characteristics in a tropical terra firme rainforest. Forest Ecology and Management 255: 558-566.
7. Cameron TC, Metcalfe DB, Beckerman AP. & Sait SM. (2007) Intraspecific competition: the role of lags between attack and death in host-parasitoid interactions. Ecology 88: 1225-1231.
8. Ostonen I, Puttsepp U, Biel C, Alberton O, Bakker MR, Lohmus K, Majdi H, Metcalfe DB, Olsthoorn AD, Pronk A, Vanguelova E, Weih M. & Brunner I. (2007) Specific root length as an indicator of environmental change. Plant Biosystems 141: 426-442.
9. Högberg P, Högberg MN, Gottlicher SG, Betson NR, Keel SG, Metcalfe DB, Campbell C, Schindlbacher A, Hurry V, Lindmark T, Linder S. & Nasholm T. (2008) High temporal resolution tracing of photosynthate carbon from the tree canopy to forest soil microorganisms. New Phytologist 177: 220-228.
10. Meir P, Metcalfe DB, Da Costa ACL. (2007) The fate of assimilated carbon during drought: impacts on respiration in Amazon rainforests. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London – Biological Sciences DOI: 10.1098/rtsb.2007.0021
11. Malhi Y, Aragão LEOC, Metcalfe DB, Patiño S, Quesada CA, Almeida S, Anderson L, Brando P, Chambers JQ, Da Costa AL, Ferreira L, Hutyra LR, Oliveira P, Pyle EH, Robertson AL (2008) Carbon stocks, productivity and allocation in three Amazonian forests. Global Change Biology DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01780.x