Crystal is an Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam, in the Department of Ecosystem and Landscape Dynamics within the Institute of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED). Her research is mainly focused on exploring how disturbances, including past human activity and fires, affect modern ecosystems. Most of her work is focused in the tropics, although she does have projects in other geographic regions and on other topics.
Crystal is also active in several scientific organizations. She was previously the Vice President of Conferences for the International Biogeography Society and is still an active member. She is also active in the British Ecological Society (BES). Crystal is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Ecology, which is a journal of the British Ecological Society, and is also an Associate Editor at Plants, People, Planet, a journal of the New Phytologist Foundation.
Crystal has been part part of the LandUse6k working group, and the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis Climate Proxies working group.
How do past human activities affect modern forests and carbon cycling?
The Amazon rainforest holds immense biodiversity and is a key component in global vegetation and carbon models, storing up to 17% of all carbon in terrestrial ecosystems. It is commonly assumed that these forests are in a state of equilibrium, i.e., they are primarily old-growth forests that are not in a state of recovery. Humans, however, have been living in and modifying Amazonian forests for thousands of years. Most tree species in the Amazon can live for hundreds of years, and processes of succession (recovery from past disturbances) can take multiple centuries. Thus, ecological legacies of past human activities may still be affecting species composition and carbon cycling in Amazonian forests. This talk will explore the timings and various types of past human activities in the Amazon, and how they may still be affecting modern forests. I will also discuss how these past human activities challenge the assumption that most forests are old-growth and in a state of equilibrium.