Dr. Khairun Nisha Binte Mohamed Ramdzan
Academic Qualifications
PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Queensland, Australia
Master of Social Sciences (Geography) from the National University of Singapore, Singapore
Research areas
Palaeoecology, geochemistry, soil carbon, tropical peatlands, restoration, Holocene
Research interests
Nisha's research interests involve understanding past environmental conditions to inform restoration in forests, specifically peatlands. She uses proxies such as pollen, testate amoeba, charcoal, carbon and nitrogen isotopes/concentration, and elemental concentration to reconstruct the past vegetation, peat and hydrology conditions to inform on pre-degradation baselines of the tropical peatland ecosystems.
Biography
Nisha is a research fellow at the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions with a background in palaeoecology and geochemistry, specifically on soil, peat and sediment. She has conducted fieldwork and research on soil and peat from Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Her PhD thesis was "Peatland restoration in Indonesia: Reconstructing peat, hydrology and vegetation dynamics using palaeoecology and geochemical proxies". She is currently working on below-ground soil carbon in different forest types in Southeast Asia.
Selected publications:
- Ramdzan, KNM, Moss, PT, Heijnis, H, Harrison, ME & Yulianti, N 2022, 'Application of Palaeoecological and Geochemical Proxies in the Context of Tropical Peatland Degradation and Restoration: A Review for Southeast Asia', Wetlands, vol. 42, no. 7, no. 95, pp. 1-18.
- Ramdzan, KNM, Moss, PT, Jacobsen, G, Gallego-Sala, A, Charman, D, Harrison, ME, Page, S, Mishra, S, Wardle, DA, Jaya, A, Aswandi, Nasir, D & Yulianti, N 2023, ‘Insights for restoration: Reconstructing the drivers of long-term local fire events and vegetation turnover of a tropical peatland in Central Kalimantan’, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, vol. 628, pp. 111772.
Conference and presentations:
Australasian Quaternary Association (AQUA) 2022, Adelaide, Australia: Oral presentation on "Insights for restoration: Reconstructing the long-term responses and resilience of vegetation, hydrology and peat conditions to fire events in a tropical peatland in Central Kalimantan." Awarded 2nd Prize for Best Presentation.