Aryaman Gupta

I am a DPhil student in the Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Sciences (ILESLA) Doctoral Training Program, supervised by Yadvinder Malhi (School of Geography and the Environment), Philip Stier (Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics), and Stuart West (Department of Biology).

My research focuses on the role that aerosols (small solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere) play in forest-atmosphere feedbacks in the Amazon. The Amazon is a vital component of the modern climate system, with transpiration from trees shaping continental-scale precipitation and wind patterns. Many trees there produce small organic molecules called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which enable them to resist heat and drought stress, regulate their microclimate, and to convey information to their neighbours. In the atmosphere, these VOCs form aerosols called SOAs, which dominate the aerosol load over the Amazon, and thus shape the cloud structure and radiative flux of the Amazonian atmosphere. My research examines whether the ecological and climatic roles of VOCs are linked, to better understand how eco-evolutionary dynamics in forests have shaped the atmosphere (and vice-versa), how those relationships may change in response to forest cover loss and climate change, or in response to positive interventions such as afforestation. To study this, I use a combination of km-scale climate modelling, fieldwork, satellite data analysis, and eco-evolutionary analytic and agent-based modelling.