Tropical forest clearance impacts biodiversity and function, whereas logging changes structure

Marsh CJ 1 , Turner EC 2 , Blonder BW 3 , Bongalov B 4 , Both S 5 , Cruz RS 6 Show all authors , Elias DMO 7 , Hemprich-Bennett D 1 , Jotan P 8 , Kemp V 9 , Kritzler UH 10 , Milne S 11 , Milodowski DT 12 , Mitchell SL 13 , Pillco MM 14 , Nunes MH 4 , Riutta T 15 , Robinson SJB 7 , Slade EM 1 , Bernard H 16 , Burslem DFRP 11 , Chung AYC 17 , Clare EL 9 , Coomes DA 4 , Davies ZG 13 , Edwards DP 4 , Johnson D 10 , Kratina P 9 , Malhi Y 15 , Majalap N 17 , Nilus R 17 , Ostle NJ 18 , Rossiter SJ 9 , Struebig MJ 13 , Tobias JA 19 , Williams M 12 , Ewers RM 19 , Lewis OT 1 , Reynolds G 20 , Teh YA 21 , Hector A 22

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  • 2 University Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • 3 Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
  • 4 Department of Plant Sciences and Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • 5 School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, Australia
  • 6 Escuela de Biología, Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cuzco, Peru
  • 7 UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster, UK
  • 8 Department of Forest Ecology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
  • 9 School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  • 10 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
  • 11 School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
  • 12 School of GeoSciences and NCEO, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  • 13 Durrell Institute for Conservation & Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
  • 14 Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
  • 15 Environmental Change Institute & Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  • 16 Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
  • 17 Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
  • 18 Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
  • 19 Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College, London, UK
  • 20 Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysia
  • 21 School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  • 22 Department of Biology & Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Science, 2025 Jan 10;387(6730):171-175.
PMID: 39787239 DOI: 10.1126/science.adf9856

Abstract

The impacts of degradation and deforestation on tropical forests are poorly understood, particularly at landscape scales. We present an extensive ecosystem analysis 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 spanning a broad suite of ecosystem properties: (i) structure and environment, (ii) species traits, (iii) biodiversity, and (iv) ecosystem functions. Responses were highly heterogeneous and often complex and nonlinear. Variables that were directly impacted by the physical process of timber extraction, such as soil structure, were sensitive to even moderate amounts of logging, whereas measures of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning were generally resilient to logging but more affected by conversion to oil palm plantation.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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