My Research

I am a forest ecologist at the Singapore Botanic Gardens of the National Parks Board. I am also adjunct faculty at the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS) where I obtained my PhD with a thesis on the effects of greenery on urban biodiversity, and also my Honours degree with a project compiling the total vascular plant flora of Singapore. My previous postdoctoral stints include an NUS Overseas Postdoctoral Fellowship hosted at the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland.

My research interests are in vegetation ecology, urban ecology, and invasion ecology. I am most proud of the work that I have accomplished in partnership with the students that I mentor/supervise; much of my time and effort goes into making them worthy of making it through scientific peer-review (see my track record).

Other Profiles: Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Publons, ORCID, Scopus, GitHub

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Vegetation Ecology

Chong, K.Y., S.M.X. Hung, C.Y. Koh, R.C.J. Lim, J.W. Loh, L Neo, W.W. Seah, S.Y. Tan, H.T.W. Tan. (2021) Waterlogging and soil but not seedling competition structure tree communities in a catchment containing a tropical freshwater swamp forest. Journal of Vegetation Science 32: e13072. [website] [PDF]

Lai, H.R., K.Y. Chong, A.T.K. Yee, H.T.W. Tan, M. van Breugel. (2020) Functional traits that moderate tropical plant recruitment during post-windstorm secondary succession. Journal of Ecology 108: 1322–1333. [website] [PDF] [blog post]

Yee, A.T.K., H.R. Lai, K.Y. Chong, L. Neo, C.Y. Koh, S.Y. Tan, W.W. Seah, J.W. Loh, R.C.J. Lim, M. van Breugel, H.T.W. Tan. (2019) Short-term responses in a secondary tropical forest after a severe windstorm event. Journal of Vegetation Science 30: 720–731. [website] [PDF] [blog post]

Urban Ecology

Chong, K.Y., Ng, W.Q., A.T.K. Yee, D.L. Yong. (2021) The community structure of bird assemblages on urban strangler figs. Biotropica 53: 255–265. [website] [PDF]

Chong K.Y., S. Teo, B. Kurukulasuriya, Y.F. Chung, X. Giam, H.T.W. Tan. (2019) The effects of landscape scale on greenery and traffic relationships with urban birds and butterflies. Urban Ecosystems 22: 917–926. [website] [PDF]

Chong, K.Y., S. Teo, B. Kurukulasuriya, Y.F. Chung, S. Rajathurai & H.T.W. Tan. 2014. Not all green is as good: different effects of the spontaneous and cultivated components of urban vegetation on bird and butterfly diversity. Biological Conservation 171: 299–309. [website] [PDF]

Invasion Ecology

Chong, K.Y., R.T. Corlett, M. Nuñez, K. Andersen, F. Courchamp, S.C. Chua, W. Dawson, S. Fei, S. Kuebbing, B.P.H. Lee, A Liebhold, S.K.Y. Lum, M. Luskin, K.M. Ngo, M. Padmanaba, L. Souza, D. Wardle. (in press) Are biological invasions different in the tropics? Annual Reviews in Ecology, Evolution & Systematics. [website] [PDF]