Paper

Logging alters tropical forest structure, while conversion reduces biodiversity and functioning

Ostle, Nicholas J, Edwards, David P, Robinson, Samuel J B, Davies, Zoe G, Clare, Elizabeth L, Cruz, Rudi S, Kratina, Pavel, David F R P Burslem, Nilus, Reuben, Malhi, Yadvinder, Tobias, Joseph A, Struebig, Matthew J, Johnson, David, Milne, Sol, Milodowski, David T, Coomes, David A, Rossiter, Stephen J, Williams, Mathew, Henry, Bernard, Nunes, Matheus Henrique, Slade, Eleanor M, Both, Sabine, Benjamin Wong Blonder, Lewis, Owen T, Elias, Dafydd M O, Ewers, Robert M, Marsh, Charles J, Turner, Edgar C, Kemp, Victoria, Mitchell, Simon L, Chung, Arthur Y C, Jotan, Palasiah, Riutta, Terhi, Hemprich-Bennett, David, Kritzler, Ully H, Teh, Yit Arn, Bongalov, Boris, Reynolds, Glen, Hector, Andy, Milenka Montoya Pillco, Majalap, Noreen

2023

Overview

The impacts of degradation and deforestation on tropical forests are poorly understood, particularly at landscape scales. We present the most extensive ecosystem analysis to date of the impacts of logging and conversion of tropical forest to oil palm from a large-scale study in Borneo, synthesizing responses from 82 variables categorized into four ecological 'levels': 1) structure and environment, 2) species traits, 3) biodiversity, and 4) ecosystem functions. Responses were highly heterogeneous. Variables that were directly impacted by the physical processes of timber extraction were sensitive to even moderate amounts of logging, whereas biodiversity and ecosystem functions proved resilient to logging in many cases, but were more affected by conversion to oil palm plantation.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.Footnotes* - Inclusion of extra variables in the analysis (canopy height and tree diversity indices), that we had not included in the original version. - Updates to results figures reflecting the new variables. - Extensive reworking of the discussion to include more information on implications for conservation and management. - Addition of more details on the methods and analysis, including more detail on logging history of the study site. - New tables in the supplementary material summarising sampling schemes and spatial scales of each variable, and table of outputs from all best models.* https://github.com/charliem2003/BALI_synthesis* https://www.zenodo.org/communities/safe/

• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
• Subject: Biodiversity / Deforestation / Ecosystem analysis / Logging / Soil characteristics / Tropical forests / Variables