Research Interest: 

I'm interested in soil-water interactions (or anything related to those two mediums), and the idea or concept of visualizing our environment in the form of systems. This translates into my current interest in looking at how ecosystem connectivity helps to facilitate fluidity of material exchange and between ecosystems, as this increases their vulnerability to any changes that might occur in adjacent ecosystems. 

I'm working on sediment source discrimination and apportionment of deposited sediments in a seagrass bay in Yao Yai Island, Thailand. This involves traditional fingerprinting methods such as geochemical tracing using rare earth elements and stable isotope signatures (13C and 15N) of fine sediments. Organic matter is also investigated as a probable tracer for sediment source or apportion by using the different C3/C4 signatures of terrestrial plants, mangroves and seagrass leaves. It could also act as a source of material in the form of (seagrass) detritus in the seagrass bay. I hope to be able to come up with a mixing model to spatially identify sediment deposition proportions in the bay, and a systems model which illustrates this dynamic exchange and deposition of sediments. Environmental science modelling is skill set that I also hope to acquire..there is so much to learn.

Other interesting things:

I love travelling/exploring new places, learning new and relearning old things, reading, playing the violin, making/building things… I’m fun-loving, always game for an adventure and love being amongst nature doing outdoorsy activities. This is probably one of the reasons why I enjoy doing fieldwork, no matter how tiring/dirty/'frustrating' it could get.

One of my favourite memories of doing fieldwork would be the first time I ever did data collection in the mangroves (Ranong). We were working on our last plot for the day during a rising tide and it started pouring heavily. Imagine trudging through waist deep water through mud and climbing up Rhizophora roots. All that mattered was.."Mich, I CANNOT HEAR YOUR READINGS!".

Another favourite memory was being at the seagrass bed alone (yes, it was scary but very surreal and peaceful). During times like these, I am reminded of how miniscule we are compared to our natural environment. Nature scares me. But more importantly, it leaves me awed. This is why I enjoy learning about the environment and the mysteries it entails.