Animal-plant interactions in the Amazon, which is home to 25% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity, play a significant role in the resilience of the tropical forests.
Plant-Animal Impact on Amazon's Degrading Forests
In the agricultural frontier between Amazonia, which covers about 40% of the South American continent, and Cerrado in the South American savannas, climate change, defaunation, and fragmentation are degrading forests. One factor in the types of forests that will survive these threats is the interaction between animals and plants. A YSE-led team of scientists was awarded a $2.45 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study to these critical plant-animal interactions and how they impact the resilience of tropical forests.
As part of the study, the team, which includes Paulo Brando, associate professor of ecosystem carbon capture; Liza Comita, professor of Tropical Forest Ecology and co-director of the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture; Craig Brodersen, professor of plant physiological ecology; and scientists from 13 institutions, will produce Amazon-wide modeling projections of how fragmentation and defaunation may impact the future trajectory of forests in the region.
The Amazon, home to 25% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, has already lost about 20% of its original area.
“If the animals were to disappear from tropical forests, how would that shape the future of those forests, as well as their capacity to provide key ecosystem services such as carbon storage and water cycling?” Brando said.
The findings of the study will have broader implications, including better quantification of the services that animal species provide in keeping forests healthy; the consequences of forest collapse on forest-dependent peoples; and how future development in the region may impact the biodiversity of Amazonian forests, Brando said.
Paulo Brando
Associate Professor of Ecosystem Carbon Capture
More News in Brief
Chad Oliver Honored with Barrington Moore Memorial Award
From his groundbreaking research on the impact of disturbance on forest dynamics to the development of the Landscape Management System that allows users to simulate forest growth to his seminal work on forest stand dynamics, Chadwick D. Oliver, Pinchot Professor Emeritus at the Yale School of the Environment, has transformed the field of forestry.
Contributions made over his more than 50-year-career have earned him the Barrington Moore Memorial Award in Biological Science from the Society of American Forestry (SAF), which recognizes outstanding achievement in biological research that led to the advance of forestry. Oliver will receive the award Sept. 19 at SAF’s national convention in Loveland, Colorado
“Receiving the Barrington Award confirms the effectiveness of an open, cooperative approach to science that many of my colleagues and I have used with each other and with our students. That is, we make individual discoveries, but we best serve if we build on the scientific works of our predecessors, work cooperatively with our colleagues, leave increased knowledge, and open pathways for others to build on what we have learned, he said.
Oliver, who taught at YSE for more than 20 years before retiring in 2022, authored more than 150 books, chapters, and research papers that have garnered over 12,000 citations. His conceptual model — and subsequent paper — that contended that disturbances in forests were not exceptions, but the norm and that all forests arise from and are affected by natural and human disturbances countered the prevailing view in ecology at the time and revolutionized the field of silviculture. His 1990 book published with Bruce Larson ’78 MFS, “Forest Stand Dynamics,” which focused on how the species and arrangement of trees favored different size, shapes, and qualities, set a new framework on forest development.
In addition to his research, Oliver worked with hundreds of mid-career professionals in dozens of countries on land management practices and testified at Congressional hearings on reducing fire risks and managing spotted owls.
“I do not believe you could get a more deserving person for this award given Chad’s contribution to stand dynamics, his engagement with the early framework for computer generated programs for landscape management, and his broader engagement with promoting better forest policy, and management decisions particularly in the U.S. West,” said Mark Ashton, Morris K. Jesup Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology and director of Yale Forests who nominated Oliver.
Chad Oliver. Photo credit: Julia Luckett
YSE Professor Recognized with UCGIS Lifetime Achievement in GIScience Education Award
Dana Tomlin, professor of GIS, has received the UCGIS Lifetime Achievement in GIScience Education Award.
“When I first came to Yale as a doctoral student, much of my reason for doing so was to pursue a hobby-like interest in the use of computers to play (I mean work) with maps,” Tomlin said. “Having now made a career out of that hobby, I am more enthused than ever at the prospect of sharing this work, I mean play, with others who also enjoy thinking spatially.”
Tomlin, the originator of Map Algebra, a set of pixelwise and neighborhood computation techniques across multiple rasters, is known for his commitment to GIS education. For almost five decades, Tomlin has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses emphasizing practical demonstration alongside strategic reasoning and creating innovative teaching materials, such as detailed ArcGIS tutorial handouts and clear documentation to supplement lectures. In his nomination letter, one former student wrote, “Dana teaches his students how to think spatially, how to break down complex problems into a series of steps, engaging their creativity at the same time.”
The University Consortium for Geographic Information Science established the Innovation in GIScience Education Award in 2020,. The award recognizes contributions to GISscience education.
Charles Dana Tomlin
Professor (Adjunct)
All Things Water
Shimon Anisfeld, senior lecturer and research scientist in water resources and environmental chemistry at YSE, has launched a new public website on water management issues.
Launched in tandem with his new textbook, “Water Management: Prioritizing Justice and Sustainability,” Anisfeld's website offers teaching and learning resources on a broad array of water issues — from inequitable access to hygiene to flooding, drought, and climate change .
“Water touches every aspect of our society. The goal of the textbook-website combination is to provide an up-to-date, integrated resource for those who want to better understand the various aspects of the water crisis,” Anisfeld said.
The new website and textbook address water supply and scarcity, water governance and allocation, tribal water rights, transboundary conflict and cooperation, and off stream and instream uses including hydropower, fishing, recreation, flood management, waste disposal, and dams. The material also examines the impact of changing technology on water resources, emerging nature-based solutions, and justice issues. As water management is often a local issue, Anisfeld also includes case studies to illustrate problems and resolutions. The website will be continually updated with the most current data..
“Water ‘hotspots’ are manifestations of serious underlying stresses on our interconnected social–physical water systems. These stresses require sustained attention from water managers, scientists, policymakers, and the public, even after the headlines have faded. That attention, in turn, requires a shared understanding of how water systems function, the stresses they are experiencing, and the tools available to increase their resilience," Anisfeld noted in the preface of his book.
Shimon Anisfeld
Senior Lecturer II and Research Scientist in Water Resources and Environmental Chemistry