Matthew Struebig

University of Kent | KENT · Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology

Responses of biodiversity to changes in both land cover and climate are recognized [ 1 ] but still poorly understood [ 2 ]. This poses significant challenges for spatial planning as species could shift, contract, expand, or maintain their range inside or outside protected areas [ 2–4 ]. We examine this problem in Borneo, a global biodiversity hotsp...

Invertebrates are dominant species in primary tropical rainforests, where their abundance and diversity contributes to the functioning and resilience of these globally important ecosystems. However, more than one-third of tropical forests have been logged, with dramatic impacts on rainforest biodiversity that may disrupt key ecosystem processes. We...

1.Over 20% of the world's tropical forests have been selectively logged, and large expanses are allocated for future timber extraction. Reduced-Impact Logging (RIL) is being promoted as best practice forestry that increases sustainability and lowers CO2 emissions from logging, by reducing collateral damage associated with timber extraction. RIL is...

Habitat loss and climate change pose a double jeopardy for many threatened taxa, making the identification of optimal habitat for the future a conservation priority. Using a case study of the endangered Bornean orang-utan, we identify environmental refuges by integrating bioclimatic models with projected deforestation and oil-palm agriculture suita...

Tropical forests are selectively logged at 20 times the rate at which they are cleared, and at least a fifth have already been disturbed in this way [1]. In a recent pan-tropical assessment, Burivalova et al.[2] demonstrate the importance of logging intensity as a driver of biodiversity decline in timber estates. Their analyses reveal that species...

Area-based conservation is a widely used approach for maintaining biodiversity, and there are ongoing discussions over what is an appropriate global conservation area coverage target. To inform such debates, it is necessary to know the extent and ecological representativeness of the current conservation area network, but this is hampered by gaps in...

Oil palm ( Elaeis guinensis ) is a controversial crop. To assess its sustainability, we analysed the contribution of different types of plantations (smallholder, industrial and unproductive) towards meeting six Sustainable Development Goals. Using spatial econometric methods and data from 25,067 villages in Sumatra, Indonesia, we revealed that unpr...

Coconut farming contributes to the livelihoods of millions of people in tropical countries but is less frequently considered as a threat to biodiversity compared to other palm commodities such as oil palm. The expansion of coconut farming alongside other smallholder agriculture in Sulawesi, Indonesia, is of potential concern as the region is a cent...

Animal activity is driven by the environmental conditions and physical structure of a habitat, and the need to interact with, or avoid, other animals. Knowledge of the proportion of the 24‐hour cycle spent active (activity level), and the time/s of day in which activity is concentrated (activity pattern), informs our understanding of species' ecolo...

Logging is the most widespread disturbance in tropical forests, altering ecological communities and functions. However, many species can persist in logged forests, particularly where disturbance is low. Despite a growing understanding of how logging affects wildlife, there remains little information for Southeast Asia's bats—in part due to major ch...

Biophysical and socio-cultural factors have jointly shaped the distribution of global biodiversity, yet relatively few studies have quantitatively assessed the influence of social and ecological landscapes on wildlife distributions. We sought to determine whether social and ecological covariates shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species...

Vegetable oil crops cover over half of global agricultural land and have varying environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Demand for coconut oil is expected to rise, but the global distribution of coconut is understudied, which hinders the discussion of its impacts. Here, we present the first 20-meter global coconut layer, produced using deep learn...

Agricultural expansion is the primary driver of ecological degradation across the tropics. Set-asides—uncultivated parts of agricultural landscapes, often on steep slopes and alongside rivers—may alleviate environmental impacts but can reduce the area cultivated. Here we model an approach to configuring set-asides aimed at optimizing ecological out...

Tropical forests are threatened by degradation and deforestation but the consequences for these ecosystems are poorly understood, particularly at the landscape scale. 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 respo...

Old-growth tropical forests are widely recognized as being immensely important for their biodiversity and high biomass1. Conversely, logged tropical forests are usually characterized as degraded ecosystems2. However, whether logging results in a degradation in ecosystem functions is less clear: shifts in the strength and resilience of key ecosystem...

Introduction Bats are critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems and many species are threatened primarily due to global habitat loss. Bats are also important hosts of a range of viruses, several of which have had significant impacts on global public health. The emergence of these viruses has been associated with land-use change and decreased host...

Habitat loss, habitat degradation and poaching threaten the survival of large mammals in Southeast Asia. Studies on these threats tend to focus on small spatial scales (i.e. a protected area), precluding region-wide species assessments that can inform conservation management. Using existing camera trap data, we constructed occupancy models to under...

Indonesia is embarking on an ambitious relocation of its capital city to Kalimantan, Borneo, bringing with it major urban and road infrastructure. Yet, despite being one of the world's most biologically diverse regions, the potential implications of this development for wildlife have yet to be fully assessed. We explored the potential impacts of th...

Wallacea—the meeting point between the Asian and Australian fauna—is one of the world's largest centers of endemism. Twenty-three million years of complex geological history have given rise to a living laboratory for the study of evolution and biodiversity, highly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. In the present article, we review the historic...

Wallacea—the meeting point between the Asian and Australian fauna—is one of the world's largest centers of endemism. Twenty-three million years of complex geological history have given rise to a living laboratory for the study of evolution and biodiversity, highly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. In the present article, we review the historic...

Biophysical and socio-cultural factors have jointly shaped the distribution of global biodiversity, yet relatively few studies have quantitatively assessed the influence of social and ecological landscapes on wildlife distributions. We sought to determine whether social and ecological covariates shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species...

Assessing where wildlife populations are at risk from future habitat loss is particularly important for land-use planning and avoiding biodiversity declines. Combining projections of future deforestation with species density information provides an improved way to anticipate such declines. Using the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo py...

Agricultural expansion is a primary driver of biodiversity decline in forested regions of the tropics. Consequently, it is important to understand the conservation value of remnant forests in production landscapes. In a tropical landscape dominated by oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), we characterized faunal communities across eight taxa occurring with...

Anthropogenic‐driven species extinctions are radically changing the biosphere. Biological communities may become increasingly similar to or dissimilar from one another via the processes of biotic homogenisation or heterogenisation. A key question is how the conversion of native forests to agriculture may influence these processes by driving changes...

Gaps in existing global conservation area datasets hamper efforts to measure progress towards international coverage and biodiversity representation targets. Here we present a framework to produce more accurate global conservation area metrics, based on selecting a representative set of nations for future collection of the best available data on pr...

Conservation strategies are rarely systematically evaluated, which reduces transparency, hinders the cost-effective deployment of resources, and hides what works best in different contexts. Using data on the iconic and critically endangered orangutan (Pongo spp.), we developed a novel spatiotemporal framework for evaluating conservation investments...

The Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project has been running since 2011 in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Over the past ten years we have conducted 19 studies that have generated data that can be used to compare the ecology of non-flying mammals in forest areas with those in oil palm plantations. This paper summarises informati...

Bats comprise a quarter of all mammal species, provide key ecosystem services and serve as effective bioindicators. Automated methods for classifying echolocation calls of free-flying bats are useful for monitoring but are not widely used in the tropics. This is particularly problematic in Southeast Asia, which supports more than 388 bat species. H...

Context Agricultural expansion is a leading cause of deforestation and habitat fragmentation globally. Policies that support biodiversity and facilitate species movement across farmland are therefore central to sustainability efforts and wildlife conservation in these human-modified landscapes. Objectives We investigated the conservation impact of...

Logging activities degrade forest habitats across large areas of the tropics, but the impacts on trophic interactions that underpin forest ecosystems are poorly understood. DNA metabarcoding provides an invaluable tool to investigate such interactions, allowing analysis at a far greater scale and resolution than has previously been possible. We ana...

The Wallacea biogeographic region of Sulawesi, the Moluccas and Lesser Sunda is globally renowned for exceptional endemism, but is currently emerging as a development frontier in Indonesia. We assessed patterns and drivers of forest loss and fragmentation across the region, and used dynamic deforestation models to project future deforestation to 20...

Habitat degradation is pervasive across the tropics and is particularly acute in Southeast Asia, with major implications for biodiversity. Much research has addressed the impact of degradation on species diversity; however, little is known about how ecological interactions are altered, including those that constitute important ecosystem functions s...

Logging activities degrade forest habitats across large areas of the tropics, but the impacts on trophic interactions that underpin forest ecosystems are poorly understood. DNA metabarcoding provides an invaluable tool to investigate such interactions, allowing analysis at a far greater scale and resolution than has previously been possible. We ana...

Assessing where wildlife populations are at risk from future habitat loss is particularly important for land-use planning and avoiding biodiversity declines. Combining projections of future deforestation with species density information provides an improved way to anticipate such declines. Using the endemic and critically endangered Bornean orangut...

Arboreal mammals form a diverse group providing ecologically important functions such as predation, pollination and seed dispersal. However, their cryptic and elusive nature, and the heights at which they live, makes studying these species challenging. Consequently, our knowledge of rainforest mammals is heavily biased towards terrestrial species,...

Measuring the multidimensional diversity properties of a community is of great importance for ecologists, conservationists and stakeholders. Diversity profiles, a plotted series of Hill numbers, simultaneously capture the common diversity indices. However, diversity metrics require information on species abundance, often relying on raw count data w...

Agricultural expansion across the tropics is the primary driver of biodiversity declines and ecosystem service degradation. However, efforts to mitigate these negative impacts may reduce commodity production. We quantify trade-offs between oil palm cultivation and ecological outcomes (biodiversity, above-ground carbon storage and dung nutrient cycl...

Historically, orangutans ( Pongo spp.) lived in large contiguous areas of intact rainforest. Today, they are also found in highly modified and fragmented landscapes dominated by oil palm or industrial timber plantations; a situation that calls for new conservation approaches. Here we report signs of orangutan presence in more than 120 small forest...

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has emerged as the leading sustainability certification system to tackle socioenvironmental issues associated with the oil palm industry. However, the effectiveness of certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in achieving its socioeconomic objectives remains uncertain. We evaluate the impact of...

Using data on the iconic orangutan (Pongo spp.), we developed a novel spatiotemporal framework for evaluating conservation investments. We show that around USD 1 billion was invested between 1999 and 2019 into orangutan conservation by governments, non-governmental organizations, companies and communities. Broken down by allocation to different con...

Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires balancing demands on land between agriculture (SDG 2) and biodiversity (SDG 15). The production of vegetable oils and, in particular, palm oil, illustrates these competing demands and trade-offs. Palm oil accounts for ~40% of the current global annual demand for vegetable oil as food, ani...

The health of the natural environment has never been a greater concern, but attention to biodiversity loss is being eclipsed by the climate crisis. We argue that conservationists must seize the agenda to put biodiversity at the heart of climate policy. Gardner and colleagues argue that efforts to conserve biodiversity should capitalise on current m...

Approaches to characterise and monitor biodiversity based on the sound signals of ecosystems have become popular in landscape ecology and biodiversity conservation. However, to date, validation studies of how well acoustic indices reflect observed biodiversity patterns have often relied on low levels of either spatial or temporal replication, while...

The application of metabarcoding to environmental and invertebrate‐derived DNA (eDNA and iDNA) is a new and increasingly applied method for monitoring biodiversity across a diverse range of habitats. This approach is particularly promising for sampling in the biodiverse humid tropics, where rapid land‐use change for agriculture means there is a gro...

There is growing interest in the ecological value of set‐aside habitats around rivers in tropical agriculture. These riparian buffers typically comprise forest or other non‐production habitat, and are established to maintain water quality and hydrological processes, while also supporting biodiversity, ecosystem function and landscape connectivity....

Measuring the multidimensional diversity properties of a community is of great importance for ecologists, conservationists and stakeholders. Diversity profiles, a plotted series of Hill numbers, simultaneously capture all the common diversity indices. However, diversity metrics require information on species abundance. They often rely on raw count...

Significance Forest restoration has become a global conservation priority, particularly in the tropics where a significant proportion of remaining forest ecosystems are degraded. To achieve ambitious restoration targets via limited conservation funds, areas that will deliver the greatest biodiversity value must be prioritized. Here, we combine airb...

Governance of the environment and natural resources involves interests of multiple stakeholders at different scales. In community-based forest management, organisations outside of communities play important roles in achieving multiple social and ecological objectives. How and when these organisations play a role in the community-based forest manage...

Participatory approaches to forest management have been promoted as a means of returning rights historically removed, and as a way of managing natural resources sustainably, fairly, and to improve livelihoods in communities. Top-down models of community-based forest management take the perspective that if people feel ownership over, have a voice in...

The increasing extent and frequency of fires globally requires nuanced understanding of the drivers of large-scale events for improved prevention and mitigation. Yet, the drivers of fires are often poorly understood by various stakeholders in spatially expansive and temporally dynamic landscapes. Further, perceptions about the main cause of fires v...

The expansion of oil palm agriculture has contributed to biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia and elsewhere in the tropics. Riparian reserves (areas of native forest along waterways) have the potential to maintain forest biodiversity and associated ecological processes within these agricultural landscapes. Using acoustic sampling, we investigated th...

The long-term conservation of Borneo’s rainforests is critical in terms of biodiversity importance yet is undermined by failing management of protected areas, and insufficient consideration of the value of well-managed production areas. The High Conservation Value approach (HCV) has been adopted by a wide range of corporations and NGOs as a tool to...

Orangutans (Pongo spp.) occur at low densities and therefore large areas are necessary to sustain viable metapopulations, defined here as sets of conspecific units of individuals linked by dispersal. Historically, orangutans lived in large contiguous areas of intact rainforest, but are now increasingly found in agricultural and other landscapes mod...

Habitat degradation is pervasive across the tropics and is particularly acute in Southeast Asia, with major implications for biodiversity. Much research has addressed the impact of degradation on species diversity; however, little is known about how ecological interactions are altered, including those that constitute important ecosystem functions s...

Many tropical countries continue to devolve forest management to forest-dwelling communities. The assumption is that local knowledge of forests and community engagement in forest management will attain multiple social and environmental co-benefits, such as poverty alleviation and reduced deforestation and fires. Evidence for this, however, is scant...

To date, 110 bat species are recorded in Peninsular Malaysia. Many of these species depend upon tropical forests, which have rapidly decreased in extent over recent decades. Yet, updated information on species distributions in the region is still lacking. Here, we report bat species records and their distribution based from surveys undertaken at 30...

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has emerged as the world’s largest sustainability standard to tackle social and environmental issues associated with the oil palm industry. To date, however, the effectiveness of RSPO certification remains uncertain, especially for socio-economic objectives. Here we evaluate the impact of certification...

Zero‐deforestation commitments seek to decouple agricultural production and forest loss to improve prospects for biodiversity. However, the effectiveness of methods designed to meet these commitments is poorly understood. In a highly fragmented tropical landscape dominated by oil palm, we tested the capacity for the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach...

Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires balancing demands on land between agriculture (SDG 2) and biodiversity (SDG 15). The production of vegetable oils in general, and palm oil in particular, is perhaps the most controversial illustration of these trade-offs. Global annual demand for vegetable oil for food, animal feed and fu...

Intact forests provide diverse and irreplaceable ecosystem services that are critical to human well-being, such as carbon storage to mitigate climate change. However, the ecosystem functions that underpin these services are highly dependent on the woody vegetation-animal interactions occurring within forests. While vertebrate defaunation is of grow...

This is the openly published DATASET relating to the Nature Communications article: Runting, Rebecca, Ruslandi, Ruslandi, Griscom, Bronson, Struebig, Matthew J., Satar, Musnanda, Meijaard, Erik, Burivalova, Zuzuna, Cheyne, Susan M., Deere, Nicolas, Game, Edward, and others. (2019) Larger gains from improved management over sparing–sharing for trop...

Habitat destruction is the single greatest anthropogenic threat to biodiversity. Decades of research on this issue have led to the accumulation of hundreds of data sets comparing species assemblages in larger, intact, habitats to smaller, more fragmented, habitats. Despite this, little synthesis or consensus has been achieved, primarily because of...

Blood‐feeding invertebrates are emerging model taxa in biodiversity assessments, both as indicators of mammal abundance and also as sources of mammal DNA for identification. Among these, terrestrial leeches arguably offer the greatest promise; they are abundant and widespread in the humid tropics, and their blood meals can be easily assayed to esta...

The conversion of forest to agriculture continues to contribute to the loss and fragmentation of remaining orang-utan habitat. There are still few published estimates of orang-utan densities in these heavily modified agricultural areas to inform range-wide population assessments and conservation strategies. In addition, little is known about what l...