William Laurance

Oct 1, 2024 | nature.com | Bruno Garcia Luize |Hanna L. Tuomisto |Ted R. Feldpausch |Nicolás Castaño Arboleda |Chris Baraloto |Julien Engel | +23 more

AbstractWe describe the geographical variation in tree species composition across Amazonian forests and show how environmental conditions are associated with species turnover. Our analyses are based on 2023 forest inventory plots (1 ha) that provide abundance data for a total of 5188 tree species. Within-plot species composition reflected both local environmental conditions (especially soil nutrients and hydrology) and geographical regions.

Apr 12, 2024 | eco-business.com | William Laurance

One of Brazil’s top scientists, Eneas Salati, once said, “The best thing you could do for the Amazon rainforest is to blow up all the roads.” He wasn’t joking. And he had a point. In an article published on 10 April in Nature, my colleagues and I show that illicit, often out-of-control road building is imperilling forests in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. The roads we’re studying do not appear on legitimate maps. We call them “ghost roads”. What’s so bad about a road? A road means access.

Mar 10, 2024 | nature.com | Florian Wittmann |Rafael Assis |Aline Lopes |Rafael P. Salomão |Olaf Bánki |Carlos A. Peres | +68 more

AbstractAmazonia’s floodplain system is the largest and most biodiverse on Earth. Although forests are crucial to the ecological integrity of floodplains, our understanding of their species composition and how this may differ from surrounding forest types is still far too limited, particularly as changing inundation regimes begin to reshape floodplain tree communities and the critical ecosystem functions they underpin.

Dec 14, 2023 | e360.yale.edu | Ben Goldfarb |William Laurance

As the developing world witnesses a boom in road building, a movement to retrofit existing roads is gathering steam. Using embankments, channels, and dikes, so-called “green roads” help control floods, harvest excess water for use in irrigation, and slash maintenance costs. Makueni County, a corner of southern Kenya that’s home to nearly a million people, is a land of extremes.

Dec 13, 2023 | nature.com | Matheus Nunes |William Laurance |Susan Laurance |Toby Jackson |Jin Wu |Josep Peñuelas | +3 more

AbstractHabitat fragmentation could potentially affect tree architecture and allometry. Here, we use ground surveys of terrestrial LiDAR in Central Amazonia to explore the influence of forest edge effects on tree architecture and allometry, as well as forest biomass, 40 years after fragmentation.