Trends in Ecology & Evolution
ReviewImpacts of roads and linear clearings on tropical forests
Section snippets
Linear clearings in the tropics
Roads and other linear infrastructure such as power lines, gas lines, railroads and canals are among the most ubiquitous features of human activity, and are known to have important environmental impacts on natural habitats and ecosystems worldwide 1, 2. Such impacts appear to be particularly acute in tropical rainforests, for at least two reasons.
First, from a biological perspective, rainforests are characterized by a complex architecture and uniquely humid, dark, stable microclimate [3]. They
Impacts of roads and linear clearings
As summarized below, roads and other linear clearings can have an array of deleterious effects on tropical forests and their wildlife.
Reducing and mitigating the impacts of linear clearings
Various measures and design strategies can be used to curb the environmental impacts of roads and other linear infrastructure. These fall into two broad categories: local-scale efforts to reduce the impacts of new or existing linear clearings, and regional-scale efforts to limit their expansion into ecologically sensitive areas.
Vulnerability of tropical forests
As detailed above, many of the impacts of roads and linear clearings appear to differ qualitatively or quantitatively between tropical rainforests and other ecosystem types. This occurs for at least five reasons.
First, rainforests have a complex, multi-layered architecture with dense canopy cover. This creates a dark, humid, thermally stable and nearly windless microclimate in the forest understory, which contrasts with harsher, more variable conditions in linear clearings. As a result of these
Acknowledgements
We thank M. Adeney, E. Bennett, S. Blake, T. Brooks, R. Butler, M. Cochrane, M. Cohen, P. Davidar, R. Ewers, P. Fearnside, T. Lovejoy, D. Neidel, D. Nepstad, C. Peres, A. Pfaff, S. Pimm, T. Rudel, N. Sodhi, M. Steininger, J. Supriatna, J. Vincent and three anonymous referees for information, imagery and insightful comments; L. Gonzalez for help with graphics; and James Cook University, the Australian Government's Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility and the Smithsonian Institution for
References (111)
Temporal variation in microclimatic edge effects near powerlines, highways and streams in Australian tropical rainforest
Agr. For. Meteor.
(2009)Edge effects in fragmented forests: implications for conservation
Trends Ecol. Evol.
(1995)Impacts of disturbance initiated by road construction in a subtropical cloud forest in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico
For. Ecol. Manage.
(1998)Hydrological functions of tropical forests: not seeing the soil for the trees? Agric
Ecosyst. Environ.
(2004)Erosion processes in steep terrain – truths, myths and uncertainties related to forest management in Southeast Asia
For. Ecol. Manage.
(2006)Forest fragmentation and edge effects from deforestation and selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon
Biol. Conserv.
(2008)- et al.
Changes in species diversity in a simulated fragmented neutral landscape
Ecol. Model.
(2007) Matrix habitat and species persistence in tropical forest remnants
Biol. Conserv.
(1999)A crisis in the making: responses of Amazonian forests to land use and climate change
Trends Ecol. Evol.
(1998)Wildlife trade and implications for law enforcement in Indonesia: a case study from North Sulawesi
Biol. Conserv.
(2005)
Transportation costs and the spatial distribution of land use in the Brazilian Amazon
Global Environ. Change
Australia's tree-kangaroos: current issues in their conservation
Biol. Conserv.
Review of ecological effects of roads on terrestrial and aquatic communities
Conserv. Biol.
Road Ecology: Science and Solutions
Internal fragmentation: the effects of roads, highways, and powerline clearings on movements and mortality of rainforest vertebrates
Fragmentation impacts caused by roads through rainforests
Curr. Sci.
Ecosystem decay of Amazonian forest fragments: a 22-year investigation
Conserv. Biol.
Responses of understory rain forest birds to road edges in central Amazonia
Ecol. Appl.
Effects of tropical rainforest roads on small mammals: edge changes in community composition
Wildl. Res.
Effects of roads on movements by understory birds in mixed-species flocks in Central Amazonian Brazil
Conserv. Biol.
Effects of road clearings on movement patterns of understory rainforest birds in Central Amazonia
Conserv. Biol.
Clearing width and movements of understory rainforest birds
Biotropica
Effects of tropical rainforest roads on small mammals: inhibition of crossing movements
Wildl. Res.
Impacts of habitat fragmentation and linear clearings on Australian rainforest biota
The future of the Brazilian Amazon
Science
Forest destruction in tropical Asia
Curr. Sci.
Roads, development, and conservation in the Congo Basin
Conserv. Biol.
Oil industry, wild meat trade and roads: indirect effects of oil extraction activities in a protected area in north-eastern Ecuador
Anim. Conserv.
Infrastructure and conservation policy in Brazil
Conserv. Biol.
Brazil's Cuiabá-Santarém (BR-163) Highway: the environmental cost of paving a soybean corridor through the Amazon
Environ. Manage.
Impacts of past riparian deforestation on stream communities in a tropical rainforest in Borneo
Ecol. Appl.
Recent contraction of wet sclerophyll forest in the wet tropics of Queensland due to invasion by rainforest
Pacific Conserv. Biol.
Trace metal uptake by the grass Melinis repens from roadside soils and sediments, tropical Australia
Environ. Geol.
Lead and zinc levels and chemical fractionation in road-side soils of Caracas, Venezuela
Water Air Soil Pollut.
Mobilisation of traffic-derived trace metals from road corridors into coastal stream and estuarine sediments, Cairns, northern Australia
Environ. Geol.
Receding edges and vanishing reserves
Science
Fragmentation of a small mammal community by a powerline corridor through tropical rainforest
Wildl. Res.
Effects of tropical rainforest roads on small mammals: fragmentation, edge effects and traffic disturbance
Wildl. Res.
Edge effects and extinction proneness in a herpetofauna from Madagascar
Biodiv. Conserv.
Habitat structure and proximity to edge affect the abundance and distribution of forest-dependent birds in tropical coastal forests of southeastern Madagascar
Biol. Conserv.
Effects of severe tropical Cyclone Larry on rainforest vegetation and understorey microclimate near a road, powerline and stream
Austral Ecol.
Study of birds killed by collisions with vehicles in a stretch of Highway BR-471, between Quinta and Taim, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Revista Brasileira Zool.
Herpetofaunal mortality on roads in the Anamalai Hills, southern Western Ghats
Hamadryad
Extent of non timber resource extraction in tropical forests: accessibility to game vertebrates by hunters in the Amazon basin
Conserv. Biol.
Impacts of roads and hunting on central-African rainforest mammals
Conserv. Biol.
Impacts of roads, hunting, and habitat alteration on nocturnal mammals in African rainforests
Conserv. Biol.
Edge effects and the extinction of populations inside protected areas
Science
Hunting of Wildlife in Tropical Forests: Implications for Biodiversity and Forest Peoples
A method for censusing the greater white-nosed monkey in northeastern Gabon using the population density gradient in relation to roads
J. Trop. Ecol.
Cited by (833)
Runoff and erosion from three unpaved road segments in northern Vietnam
2024, Journal of Hydrology: Regional StudiesSpatial and temporal patterns of road mortality in the Caspian whip snake (Dolichophis caspius Gmelin 1758) in Romania
2024, Journal for Nature ConservationUtilizing a top predator to prioritize site protection for biodiversity conservation
2023, Journal of Environmental ManagementUse of logging roads by terrestrial mammals in a responsibly managed neotropical rainforest in Guyana
2023, Forest Ecology and ManagementMapping roadless areas in regions with contrasting human footprint
2024, Scientific Reports