There is an amazing diversity of plants all around the world, especially in the tropics and these plants play an important role in the ecosystem. I work on the family Calophyllaceae in the geographic region of Malesia and will try to determine how many species are in some of the genera and what are their evolutionary relationships.
Keywords
Plant diversity, Taxonomy, Phylogeny, Biogeography, Flora Malesiana
Researchinterest
How many species are there in some genera of the family? How are they likely to be connected to each other? What are the characters to tell them apart?
Trees and shrubs of the family are notable in the tropical forests of Malesia. Preserved plant specimens and their associated data in the collections of some herbaria will be referenced to determine how many species there may be in some genera. Afterwards, molecular techniques and technology such as next generation sequencing (NGS) and image recognition will be used to investigate these species concepts and their possible relationships with one another. I will also assess if the methods mentioned can improve the efficiency and speed of our investigations as many plants are increasingly threatened by overpopulation, land use and climate change.
Currenttopics
A selection of the topics I am working on currently.
Keypublications
Hung, S.M.X., Seah, W.W. & Chong, K.Y. (2022). Towards a field guide to the trees of the Nee Soon Swamp Forest (VI): Calophyllum (Calophyllaceae). Nature in Singapore, Supplement 1: e2022072. DOI: 10.26107/NIS2022-0072
Seah, W.W., Hung, S.M.X. & Chong, K.Y. (2019). Flora of Singapore precursors, 17: Clarification of some names in the genus Calophyllum as known in Singapore. Gardens’ Bulletin Singapore 71(2): 407–414.
Full publications at ResearchGate