He told CNA938 on Monday (Jan 8) that the project was conceptualised as there has been a lack of such research specifically focusing on Southeast Asia.
Globally, higher temperatures and frequency of drought events have led to an uptick in the death of big trees, which are important to the ecosystem as they store most of the carbon emissions, said Asst Prof Lim.
“One of the main reasons we put together this research proposal is to try to understand whether or not this global process is also happening within Singapore,” he said.
“If the big trees die, they open up new spaces within the tropical forests. So in the short term, you might lose a lot of carbon and potentially diversity.”
He added that in tropical forests, like those in Singapore, various tree species are competing with each other for resources such as light and water.
“So whenever the climate changes in any way, there will always be winners and losers. There will be some tree species that might perform less well in the new environment, and some trees that will perform a little bit better,” he said.