Mason Campbell

• BSc. (Hons.) PhD
• Senior Researcher at James Cook University

Tropical forests are major contributors to the terrestrial global carbon pool, but this pool is being reduced via deforestation and forest degradation. Relatively few studies have assessed carbon storage in degraded tropical forests. We sampled 37,000 m2 of intact rainforest, degraded rainforest and sclerophyll forest across the greater Wet Tropics...

Lianas contribute substantially to the total species richness of tropical forests, accounting for up to a quarter of the woody plant diversity. However, liana diversity is intrinsically linked with forest condition and consequently is altered by human-induced forest modifications. Multiple environmental drivers including forest fragmentation, loggi...

Can the strategic incorporation of lianas (woody vines) into rainforest restoration plantings enhance biodiversity-conservation outcomes? Lianas are an integral component of primary tropical rainforests yet are often omitted from rainforest restoration plantings as they may damage trees and compete with them for resources. However, there is increas...

Understanding how biodiversity persists in the small fragments of forest that remain in many tropical regions is a vital priority. This chapter reviews available studies on liana communities and liana–tree interactions in fragmented tropical forests. Although much remains unknown, it is apparent that lianas often increase dramatically in abundance...

Many contemporary ecosystems are likely to be affected by multiple environmental drivers, complicating efforts to predict future changes in those ecosystems. We studied long-term changes (1980-2012) in forest dynamics and liana (woody vine) abundance and biomass in fragmented and intact forests of the central Amazon. We did so by contrasting trends...

Roads are expanding at the fastest pace in human history. This is the case especially in biodiversity-rich tropical nations, where roads can result in forest loss and fragmentation, wildfires, illicit land invasions and negative societal effects1–5. Many roads are being constructed illegally or informally and do not appear on any existing road map6...

Growing evidence suggests that liana competition with trees is threatening the global carbon sink by slowing the recovery of forests following disturbance. A recent theory based on local and regional evidence further proposes that the competitive success of lianas over trees is driven by interactions between forest disturbance and climate. We prese...

Lianas are increasing in abundance in many tropical forests. This increase can alter forest structure and decrease both carbon storage and tree diversity via antagonistic relationships between lianas and their host trees. Climate change is postulated as an underlying driver of increasing liana abundances, via increases in dry-season length, forest-...

The ability of animals to adjust their behaviour can influence how they respond to environmental changes and human presence. We quantified activity patterns of terrestrial mammals in oil palm plantations and native riparian forest in Colombia to determine if species exhibited behavioural changes depending on the type of habitat and the presence of...

The fragmentation of tropical forests threatens plant community compositions worldwide. In the present study, we examined the impact of fragmentation on plant community compositions over 30 years in sacred forest grove fragments in southern India. For this study, we randomly selected 30 sacred grove patches (hereafter referred to as fragments) of d...

Much of the lowland tropical forests in the Solomon Islands have been heavily logged. However, little is known about the recovery status of these forests. We examined factors that influenced the recovery of forest structural attributes within 50 years after selective logging on Kolombangara Island in the western Solomon Islands. Twelve study sites—...

Aims Anthropogenic climate change is predicted to increase mean temperatures and rainfall seasonality. How tropical rainforest species will respond to this climate change remains uncertain. Here we analyzed the effects of a 4-year experimental throughfall exclusion on an Australian endemic palm (Normambya normanbyi) in the Daintree rainforest of No...

Lianas are woody vines, rooted in the soil, and supported physically by trees. Lianas contribute to forest ecosystem functioning globally, but especially in the tropics and subtropics. However, prolific liana growth following heavy disturbance frequently affects subsequent recovery of forest tree diversity, biomass, structure, and function. Underst...

The forests of Borneo—the third largest island on the planet—sustain some of the highest biodiversity and carbon storage in the world. The forests also provide vital ecosystem services and livelihood support for millions of people in the region, including many indigenous communities. The Pan-Borneo Highway and several hydroelectric dams are planned...

The Heart of Borneo initiative has promoted the integration of protected areas and sustainably-managed forests across Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. Recently, however, member states of the Heart of Borneo have begun pursuing ambitious unilateral infrastructure-development schemes to accelerate economic growth, jeopardizing the underlying goal of...

Tropical forest regions in equatorial Africa are threatened with degradation, deforestation and biodiversity loss as a result of land-cover change. We investigated historical land-cover dynamics in unprotected forested areas of the Littoral Region in south-western Cameroon during 1975–2017, to detect changes that may influence this important biodiv...

The present study was conducted in a population structure of selectively logged tropical wet evergreen forest, Cullenia-Mesua-Palaquium (CMP) forest series in the tropical wet evergreen forests of the Nelliampathy Hills, Western Ghats. The study was aimed to focus on how selectively logged treatment influences the density and basal area of CMP fore...

The island of New Guinea hosts the third largest expanse of tropical rainforest on the planet. Papua New Guinea—comprising the eastern half of the island—plans to nearly double its national road network (from 8,700 to 15,000 km) over the next three years, to spur economic growth. We assessed these plans using fine-scale biophysical and environmenta...

While the conservation role of remaining natural habitats in anthropogenic landscapes is clear, the degree to which agricultural matrices impose limitations to animal use is not well understood, but vital to assess species’ resilience to land use change. Using an occupancy framework, we evaluated how oil palm plantations affect the occurrence and h...

Lianas (woody climbers) are structural parasites of trees that compete with them for light and below-ground resources. Most studies of liana–tree interactions are based on ground-level observations of liana stem density and size, with these assessments generally assumed to reflect the amount of liana canopy cover and overall burden to the tree. We...

Abstract Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan) sustains ~37 million hectares of native tropical forest. Numerous large-scale infrastructure projects aimed at promoting land-development activities are planned or ongoing in the region. However, little is known of the potential impacts of this new infrastructure on Bornean forests or biodiversity. We found t...

Road-infrastructure development in Southeast Asia is opening new resource frontiers but also consolidating earlier investments in agriculture and trade, as illustrated by the 2,700-km Trans-Sumatra Highway planned for Sumatra, Indonesia. In contrast to earlier broadscale forest losses in Sumatra, driven historically in Sumatra infrastructure and ag...

The island of New Guinea harbours one of the world’s largest tracts of intact tropical forest, with 41% of its land area in Indonesian Papua (Papua and Papua Barat Provinces). Within Papua, the advent of a 4000-km ‘development corridor’ reflects a national agenda promoting primary-resource extraction and economic integration. Papua, a resource fron...

Large old trees are keystone ecological structures that provide vital ecosystem services to humans. However, there are few large-scale empirical studies on patterns of diversity and density of large old trees in human-dominated landscapes. We present the results of the first nationwide study in China to investigate the patterns of diversity and den...

in this paper, we clarify some misinterpretations of our previous paper Pardo et al 2018. We also highlight the importance of redirecting prioritization schemes based only on threatened species/ecosystem to one that recognizes the importance of the ecological processes of species surviving in human-dominated landscapes, incorrectly deemed as "commo...

As oil palm plantations continue to expand in Neotropical regions, identifying critical transitions in land use, at which animal communities can be drastically altered, is crucial for conservation planning. Here, we investigated potential unexpected change points (thresholds) in the response of terrestrial mammal's richness and community compositio...

The reproductive phenology of tropical plants is potentially driven by a number of abiotic and biotic factors. However, it is still unclear as to which climatic factors and biotic interactions drive the reproductive phenology of woody trees in the tropical seasonal rainforest of Xishuangbanna region in Southwest China. We conducted observations on...

The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) has become an applicable non‐invasive tool with which to obtain information about biodiversity. A sub‐discipline of eDNA is iDNA (invertebrate‐derived DNA), where genetic material ingested by invertebrates is used to characterise the biodiversity of the species that served as hosts. While promising, these techniq...

The Leuser Ecosystem in northern Sumatra, Indonesia is a globally-significant landscape for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. It is however increasingly threatened by infrastructure development, enabled by discordant forest governance amongst central and regional governments. Here we identify these infrastructure threats and related...

The rapid expansion of oil palm cultivation in the Neotropics has generated great debate around possible biodiversity impacts. Colombia, for example, is the largest producer of oil palm in the Americas, but the effects of oil palm cultivation on native fauna are poorly understood. Here, we compared how richness, abundance and composition of terrest...

Terrestrial mammal species detected by camera trapping surveys (Aug. 2014 ‒ Dec. 2015) in oil palm plantations and riparian forests in Llanos, Colombia. (DOCX)

Multispecies generalized linear models examining the relationship between the abundance of medium and large terrestrial mammal species and selected landscape covariates in the Llanos region, Colombia. (DOCX)

Model selection output comparing all possible combinations for the effect of variables on mammalian species richness at the landscape level. (DOCX)

Model selection output comparing all possible combinations for the effect of variables on mammalian species richness within oil palm plantation level. (DOCX)

Model selection output comparing all possible combinations for the effect of variables on mammalian species richness within riparian forest level. (DOCX)

Images of the study area in the Llanos region of Colombia (Meta Department). a) Aerial photographs (August 2014) of the landscape highlighting riparian forest and oil palm plantations structure. b) Differences in management schemes of understory vegetation in oil palm plantations in Llanos, Colombia. Photo credit: L.E.Pardo. (PDF)

The relationship between mammal species abundance and selected landscape variables in the Llanos region Colombia. Coefficients are from the saturated model using the multispecies generalized linear modelling prior to shrinkage with Lasso penalty (R package mvabund). SE is the standard error of the coefficient. For scientific names and details of th...

Tropical forests are the storehouse of both ecosystem services and biodiversity but the interlinkages between these two components of ecosystems are yet to be fully explored. We utilized expert opinion to assess the key and multiple ecosystem services, and biodiversity in a tropical landscape. We found that key and multiple ecosystem services suppl...

Nater, et al.[1] recently identified a new orangutan species (Pongo tapanuliensis) in northern Sumatra, Indonesia-just the seventh described species of living great ape. The population of this critically-endangered species is perilously small, at only ∼800 individuals [1], ranking it among the planet's rarest fauna. We assert that P. tapanuliensis...

Closed-canopy forests are being rapidly fragmented across much of the tropical world. Determining the impacts of fragmentation on ecological processes enables better forest management and improves species-conservation outcomes. Lianas are an integral part of tropical forests but can have detrimental and potentially complex interactions with their h...

Campbell, M., M. Alagmir, and W. F. Laurance. 2018. Optimizing roads to limit environmental damage and maximize societal development in the Asia-Pacific. HOPE E-News Bulletin, March: 6 (http://www.hopeaustralia.org.au/uploads/media/HOPE_ Enews_bulletin_2018__03_---_March_2018.pdf)

We evaluate potential warning signals that may aid in identifying the proximity of ecological communities to biodiversity thresholds from habitat loss-often termed "tipping points"-in tropical forests. We used datasets from studies of Neotropical mammal, frog, bird, and insect communities. Our findings provide only limited evidence that an increase...

We examined the effects of forest patch size on woody tree species richness and abundance in tropical montane evergreen forest patches of the Nilgiri region, south India. We sampled woody trees (≥ 1 cm dbh) from 21 forest patches in the upper Nilgiri hills (> 2000 m elevation) and recorded a total of 35,146 individuals of 61 species, 45 genera and...

The 21st century will see an unprecedented expansion of roads, dams, power lines, and gas lines, as well as massive investments in mining and fossil fuel projects. At least 25 million kilometers of new roads are anticipated by 2050. Nine-tenths of all road construction is projected to occur in developing nations, including many tropical regions tha...

It is projected that 25 million km of new paved roads will be developed globally by 2050-enough to encircle the planet more than 600 times. Roughly 90% of new roads will be built in developing nations, frequently in tropical and subtropical regions with high biodiversity and environmental values. Many developing nations are borrowing from internati...

Human-induced forest fragmentation poses one of the largest threats to global diversity yet its impact on rattans (climbing palms) has remained virtually unexplored. Rattan is arguably the world’s most valuable non-timber forest product though current levels of harvesting and land-use change place wild populations at risk. To assess rattan response...

The species richness and density of lianas (woody vines) in tropical forests is determined by various abiotic and biotic factors. Factors such as altitude, forest patch size and the degree of forest disturbance are known to exert strong influences on liana species richness and density. We investigated how liana species richness and density were con...

The tropical forests of Africa are experiencing unprecedented changes as a result of a rapid proliferation of roads and other infrastructure. These projects are dramatically increasing access to relatively unexploited regions, particularly in the greater Congo Basin. We highlight some of the most important new projects and describe in detail an ong...

The Cross River State Government in Nigeria is proposing to construct a “Cross River Superhighway” that would bisect critical remaining areas of tropical rainforest in south eastern Nigeria. We offer and evaluate two alternative routes to the superhighway that would be less damaging to forests, protected areas, and biological diversity. The first a...

The species richness and density of lianas (woody vines) in tropical forests is determined by various abiotic and biotic factors. Factors such as altitude, forest patch size and the degree of forest disturbance are known to exert strong influences on liana species richness and density. We investigated how liana species richness and density were con...

Livestock grazing is a major anthropogenic impact influencing both grasslands and wetlands of the world which often results in the alteration of the structure, diversity and functioning of the plant communities. Here, we seek to understand how grazing intensity influences swamp vegetation, with an emphasis on their diversity, structure and function...

Background: Full floristic data, tree demography, and biomass estimates incorporating non-tree lifeforms are seldom collected and reported for forest plots in the tropics. Established research stations serve as important repositories of such biodiversity and ecological data. With a canopy crane setup within a tropical lowland rainforest estate, th...

Daintree Rainforest Observatory vascular plant species list and stem abundances (≥ 10 cm dbh) within the 2 x 1-ha monitoring plots.

Abstract: The collection of plant specimens and their preservation within herbaria is invaluable in the documentation of temporal species change and the conservation of genetic plant resources. Historical plant collections enable an accurate determination of species geographical distribution at both the local and regional scale. In this study, we d...

Abstract: The collection of plant specimens and their preservation within herbaria is invaluable in the documentation of temporal species change and the conservation of genetic plant resources. Historical plant collections enable an accurate determination of species geographical distribution at both the local and regional scale. In this study, we d...

Recent herbarium-based phenology assessments of many plant species have found significant responses to global climate change over the previous century. In this study, we investigate how the flowering phenology of three alpine ginger Roscoea species responses to climate change over the century from 1913 to 2011, by comparing between herbarium-based...

Recent herbarium-based phenology assessments of many plant species have found significant responses to global climate change over the previous century. In this study, we investigate how the flowering phenology of three alpine ginger Roscoea species responses to climate change over the century from 1913 to 2011, by comparing between herbarium-based...

Can the strategic incorporation of lianas (woody vines) into rainforest restoration plantings enhance biodiversity-conservation outcomes? Lianas are an integral component of primary tropical rainforests yet are often omitted from rainforest restoration plantings as they may damage trees and compete with them for resources. However, there is increas...

Swamps represent a relatively understudied ecosystem in many regions, which contrasts markedly with the research attention which other wetlands and Mangrove ecosystems have received. In the upper Nilgiris of southern India, montane swamps are restricted to geographic areas with flat surfaces and bounded by different edge transition vegetation types...

We investigate the effect of patch size on liana diversity and distribution in 19 patches of montane evergreen forest in the Nilgiri hills, Western Ghats, southern India. Additionally, we examined how liana species richness and community assemblage in both edge (within 10 m of the forest edge) and interior regions of forest patches respond to patch...

Understanding forest dynamics within remnant fragments of tropical forest is a vital priority if we are to manage them effectively for biodiversity conservation. Lianas (woody vines) are well known to interact antagonistically with trees, and if they flourish in older forest fragments they may promote detrimental ecological impacts and fragment deg...

Lianas (climbing woody vines) are important structural parasites of tropical trees and may be increasing in abundance in response to global‐change drivers. We assessed long‐term (∼14‐year) changes in liana abundance and forest dynamics within 36 1‐ha permanent plots spanning ∼600 km ² of undisturbed rainforest in central Amazonia. Within each plot,...

Lianas (climbing woody vines) are important structural parasites of tropical trees and may be increasing in abundance in response to global-change drivers. We assessed long-term (similar to 14-year) changes in liana abundance and forest dynamics within 36 1-ha permanent plots spanning similar to 600 km(2) of undisturbed rainforest in central Amazon...

Question: In fragmented forests, edge effects lead to changes in the distribution of plant species. In particular, tropical forest edges are increasingly dominated by lianas. Will this increase in lianas lead to changes in their interactions with other plant morphological groups? If so, will this alter the local distributions and abundance of other...

Abstract. Swamps represent a relatively understudied ecosystem in many regions, which contrasts markedly with the research attention which other wetlands and Mangrove ecosystems have received. In the upper Nilgiris of southern India, montane swamps are restricted to geographic areas with flat surfaces and bounded by different edge transition vegeta...

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to hu...

We establish a methodology and present baseline data for a long-term grassy woodland restoration study that commenced in 2007 in two nature reserves (Mulligans Flat, Goorooyarroo (35° 9–13’ S; 149° 9–12’ E)) totalling 1386 ha on the northern boundary of Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory in south eastern Australia. The experimental infra...

Stomatal responses are important because they control plant water balance. Conventional wisdom has it that stomata close in response to heat and in response to dry air, but these responses have seldom been examined in an explicitly comparative framework. We examined leaf and stomatal response to water limitation in five South African Pelargonium sp...