Raul Peixoto is joining our group as a visiting student from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Brazil. Raul is pursuing his Ph.D. with Prof. Gislene Ganade at UFRN and will stay with us for one year. Welcome!
My name is Raul Peixoto, I am a Brazilian Ph.D. student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte and supervised by Professor Gislene Ganade, coordinator of the Laboratory of Restoration Ecology.
I am studying the effect of biodiversity on leaf litter decomposition at BrazilDry Experiment located in Assu, city of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, which is linked to the IDENT Experiment of TreeDivNet. I aim to assess how tree neighbourhoods and leaves diversity affect the quantity, quality and leaf litter decomposition rates in a dry forest in the Brazilian biome called Caatinga. The Caatinga has only two different seasons per year: the dry season and the rainy season. I hope to understand how the diversity of trees and herbaceous trees work in order to improve the decomposition process of the leaf in each season. In addition, I want to understand what are the main leaf traits responsible for increasing the leaf decay rates in each season.
I came to UQAM to spend a year working in partnership with Allain Paquette Laboratory to learn about static models and variable measurement techniques used in the IDENT experiment and apply them to our research in the BrazilDry experiment. I also hope to contribute to the projects developed in this laboratory in any way possible.
I am very excited about the opportunity to be here and I believe we will make great advances in our researches.
