Research Details

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My primary research has been on the mathematical modelling of the dynamics of ecological systems. Specifically, I have worked on dynamic models of forest communities, tropical coral reef communities and temperate marine shelf communities. Particular topics of interest are temporal environmental stochasticity, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, ecological regime shifts, and scenario testing for sustainable management.

ACADEMIA

Oct 2013 - present

Post-doc, National University of Singapore, Department of Biological Sciences

Project title: Tropical forest dynamics and global change

Principal Investigator: Dr Ryan Chisholm

May 2009 - Oct 2013

PhD, Queen's University Belfast, School of Biological Sciences

Thesis title: Sustainable fisheries and the diversity of marine communities: A theoretical investigation

Supervisors: Dr Keith Farnsworth, Dr Axel Rossberg

Oct 2005 - Dec 2009

PhD, University College London, CoMPLEX and Department of Mathematics

Thesis title: Local scale models of coral reef ecosystems for scenario testing and decision support. pdf of thesis

Supervisors: Professor Robert Seymour, Professor Craig Johnson.

Oct 2004 - Sep 2005

MRes in Modelling Biological Complexity, University College London, CoMPLEX

Oct 2000 - Jun 2003

BSc (Hons) in Mathematics with Management, Imperial College London, Department of Mathematics

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed

1. Menge, D. N. L., R. A. Chisholm, ..., T. Fung. In press. Patterns of nitrogen-fixing tree abundance in forests across Asia and America. Journal of Ecology.URL

2. Fung, T., S. Xiao and R. A. Chisholm. In press. Spatial scaling of species richness-productivity relationships for local communities: Analytical results from a neutral model. Theoretical Ecology. URL

3. Fung, T., J. P. O'Dwyer and R. A. Chisholm. 2019. Partitioning the effects of deterministic and stochastic processes on species extinction risk. Ecological Complexity 38: 156-167. URL

4. Fung, T., J. P. O'Dwyer and R. A. Chisholm. 2018. Quantifying species extinction risk under temporal environmental variance. Ecological Complexity 34: 139-146. URL

5. Chisholm, R. A. and T. Fung. 2018. Technical Comment on "Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale". Science 360: eaar4685. URL

6. Arias-González, J. E., T. Fung, R. M. Seymour, J. R. Garza-Pérez, G. Acosta-González, Y.-M. Bozec and C. R. Johnson . 2017. A coral-algal phase shift in Mesoamerica not driven by changes in herbivorous fish abundance. PLOS ONE 12(4): e0174855. URL

7. Fung, T., J. P. O'Dwyer and R. A. Chisholm. 2017. Species-abundance distributions under colored environmental noise. Journal of Mathematical Biology 74: 289-311. URL

8. Yuen, J. Q., T. Fung and A. D. Ziegler. 2017. Carbon stocks in bamboo ecosystems worldwide: estimates and uncertainties. Forest Ecology and Management 393: 113-138. URL

9. Chisholm, R. A., T. Fung, D. Chimalakonda and J. P. O'Dwyer. 2016. Maintenance of biodiversity on islands. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283: 20160102. URL

10. Fung, T., J. P. O'Dwyer, K. Abd. Rahman, C. D. Fletcher and R. A. Chisholm. 2016. Reproducing static and dynamic biodiversity patterns in tropical forests: the critical role of environmental variance. Ecology 97: 1207-1217. URL

11. Chisholm, R. A., X. Giam, K. R. Sadanandan, T. Fung and F. E. Rheindt. 2016. A robust non-parametric method for quantifying undetected extinctions. Conservation Biology 30: 610-617. URL

12. Yuen, J. Q., T. Fung and A. D. Ziegler. 2016. Review of allometric equations for major land covers in SE Asia: Uncertainty and implications for above- and below-ground carbon estimates. Forest Ecology and Management 360: 323-340. URL

13. Fung, T., L. Villain and R. A. Chisholm. 2015. Analytical formulae for computing dominance from species-abundance distributions. Journal of Theoretical Biology 386: 147-158. URL

14. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. 2015. Impact of biodiversity loss on production in complex marine food webs mitigated by prey-release. Nature Communications 6: 6657. URL

15. Chisholm, R. A., D. N. L. Menge, T. Fung, N. S. G. Williams and S. A. Levin. 2015. The potential for alternative stable states in nutrient-enriched invaded grasslands. Theoretical Ecology. URL

16. Fung, T., K. Keenan. 2014. Confidence intervals for population allele frequencies: the general case of sampling from a finite diploid population of any size. PLoS ONE 9(1): e85925. URL

17. Fung, T., R. M. Seymour and C. R. Johnson. 2013. Warning signals of regime shifts as intrinsic properties of endogenous dynamics. The American Naturalist 182: 208-222. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Robert M. Seymour. URL

18. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, S. Shephard, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. 2013. Why the size structure of marine communities can require decades to recover from fishing. Marine Ecology Progress Series 484: 155-171. URL

19. Shephard, S., T. Fung, A. G. Rossberg, K. D. Farnsworth, D. G. Reid, S. P. R. Greenstreet and S. Warnes. 2013. Modelling recovery of Celtic Sea demersal fish community size-structure. Fisheries Research 140: 91-95. URL

20. Farnsworth, K. D., O. Lyashevska and T. Fung. 2012. Functional complexity: The source of value in biodiversity. Ecological Complexity 11: 46-52. URL

21. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. 2012. Recent data suggest no further recovery in North Sea Large Fish Indicator. ICES Journal of Marine Science 69: 235-239. URL

22. Shephard, S., T. Fung, J. E. Houle, K. D. Farnsworth, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. 2012. Size-selective fishing drives species composition in the Celtic Sea. ICES Journal of Marine Science 69: 223-234. URL

23. Fung, T., R. M. Seymour and C. R. Johnson. 2011. Alternative stable states and phase shifts in coral reefs under anthropogenic stress. Ecology 92: 967-982. URL

24. Melbourne-Thomas, J., C. R. Johnson, T. Fung, R. M. Seymour, L. M. Chérubin, J. E. Arias-González and E. A. Fulton. 2011. Regional-scale scenario modeling for coral reefs: a decision support tool to inform management of a complex system. Ecological Applications 21: 1380-1398. URL

25. Seymour, R. M., G. Knight and T. Fung. 2010. Conditions for global dynamic stability of a class of resource-bounded model ecosystems. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 72: 1971-2003. URL

26. Fung, T., R. M. Seymour and C. R. Johnson. 2010. Modeling reefs at a local scale: the elements of design. Pages 27-31 in D. Cleland, J. Melbourne-Thomas, M. King and G. Sheehan (editors), Building capacity in coral reef science: An anthology of CRTR scholars' research. 2010. Currie Communications, Melbourne, Australia.

Technical reports

17. ICES, WGECO. 2012. Report of the Working Group on the Ecosystem Effects of Fishing Activities (WGECO), 11-18 April 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2012/ACOM:26. (In particular, contributed text and figures to pp. 96-100.) URL

18. ICES, WGECO. 2011. Report of the Working Group on the Ecosystem Effects of Fishing Activities (WGECO), 13-20 April 2011, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2011/ACOM:24. (In particular, contributed text and figures to pp. 28-33.) URL

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

1. Fung, T. and R. A .Chisholm. Reconciling conservation of diversity and maintenance of ecosystem services in forest tree communities. Talk at 3rd Regional Conference of the Society for Conservation Biology, Melaka, Malaysia. Aug 2014.

2. Fung, T., R. A. Chisholm and J. P. O'Dwyer. Environmental stochasticity as an essential process underlying dynamic patterns in tropical forest biodiversity. Talk at Association for Tropical Biology & Conservation 51st Annual Meeting, Cairns, Australia. Jul 2014.

3. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. Biodversity-ecosystem functioning relationships for large ecosystems with 1000's of species. Talk at Mathematical Methods in Ecology and Evolution, York, UK. Aug 2013.

4. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. How does marine community resilience change with biodiversity loss? Talk at ICES Annual Science Conference, Bergen, Norway. Sep 2012.

5. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, A. G. Rossberg and D. G. Reid. Deriving and understanding the biodiversity-productivity relationship for large marine fish communities. Talk at 6th World Fisheries Congress, Edinburgh, UK. May 2012.

6. Fung, T., R. M. Seymour and C. R. Johnson. Modelling coral reefs: alternative stable states and signals warning of critical transitions. Talk at CoMPLEX Annual Conference, London, UK. Feb 2012. pdf of slides

7. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, S. Shephard, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. Predicting recovery trajectories for the Large Species and Large Fish Indicators. Talk at ICES Annual Science Conference, Gdańsk, Poland. Sep 2011. pdf of slides

8. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. Signatures of fishing on marine food web structure. Poster at ICES Annual Science Conference, Gdańsk, Poland. Sep 2011. pdf of poster

9. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, A. G. Rossberg and D. G. Reid. Modelling effects of fishing on biodiversity. ICES Annual Science Conference, Nantes, France. Sep 2010. pdf of poster

10. Fung, T., K. D. Farnsworth, J. E. Houle, D. G. Reid and A. G. Rossberg. Models connecting science and fisheries management. Talk at Linking Advice, Research and the Fishing Industry Mini-conference, Galway, Ireland. Jun 2010. pdf of slides