Crystal McMichael

Biography

Crystal McMichael is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam. She is a tropical ecologist, paleoecologist and biogeographer, with a focus on human-environment interactions in the Neotropics. Her research is multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary, and she is currently looking how past and present human activities affect modern tropical ecosystems. Her research group has recently generated models of the distributions of people across landscapes in the pre-Columbian and post-Columbian (colonial) periods, and how people may have enriched or depleted certain types or species of plants. She is now looking at how these past landscape modifications may affect modern forest resilience to deforestation and drought, which are predicted to increase in upcoming decades. Crystal is also involved in conservation of tropical systems. She has i) helped develop a collaborative initiative linking scientists, ecotourism managers, and local people in the Napo region of Ecuadorian Amazon, ii) is involved in reforestation initiatives in the Baeza region of the Ecuadorian Andes, and iii) is assessing how various forms of cacao agroforestry retain ecosystem function and services in the Brazilian Amazon.