The global demand for rubber tyres is threatening protected forests in Southeast Asia, according to a study. Tropical forests are being cleared for rubber plantations, putting endangered birds, bats and primates at risk, say UK researchers. By 2024, up to 8.5 million hectares of new rubber plantations will be needed to meet demand, they report in Conservation Letters. This could have a "catastrophic" impact on wildlife, they warn. Species such as the endangered white-shouldered ibis, yellow-cheeked crested gibbon and clouded leopard could lose precious habitat, said the team led by Eleanor Warren-Thomas, from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. Also, the banteng, which is found in the forests of Cambodia. There's a lot we can do as scientists and the public to make rubber production more wildlife-friendly. "The tyre industry consumes 70% of all natural rubber grown, and rising demand for vehicle and aeroplane tyres is behind the recent expansion of plantations. But the impact of this is a loss of tropical biodiversity," she said. "We predict that between 4.3 and 8.5 million hectares of new plantations will be required to meet projected demand by 2024. This will threaten significant areas of Asian forest, including many protected areas." Eight-point-five million hectares is about the size of the land area of Austria. Biodiversity concern Rubber is the most rapidly expanding tree crop within mainland Southeast Asia.

The role forest matter plays in aquatic food chains is a relatively recent discovery.

Deforestation is reducing the amount of leaf litter falling into rivers and lakes, resulting in less food being available to fish, a study suggests.

Researchers found the amount of food available affected the size of young fish and influenced the number that went on to reach adulthood.

The team said the results illustrated a link between watershed protection and healthy freshwater fish populations.

The findings have been published in Nature Communications.

"We found fish that had almost 70% of their biomass made from carbon that came from trees and leaves instead of aquatic food chain sources," explained lead author Andrew Tanentzap from the University of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences.

"While plankton raised on algal carbon is more nutritious, organic carbon from trees washed into lakes is a hugely important food source for freshwater fish, bolstering their diet to ensure good size and strength," he added.

Dr Tanentzap observed: "Where you have more dissolved forest matter you have more bacteria, more bacteria equals more zooplankton.

"Areas with the most zooplankton had the largest, fattest fish," he added, referring to the study's results.

The team of scientists from Canada and the UK collected data from eight locations with varying levels of tree cover around Daisy Lake, Canada, which forms part of the boreal ecosystem.

Just 227 tree species dominate Amazon

Researchers were surprised to find that such a small proportion of species dominated the Amazon .
Despite being home to about 16,000 tree species, just 227 "hyperdominant" species account for half of Amazonia's total trees, a study suggests.

An international team of researchers found that the region was, in total, home to an estimated 390 billion trees.

Writing in Science, they added that the rarest 11,000 species made up only 0.12% of tree cover.

However, they added that the new data could help unlock ecological secrets held by the biodiversity hotspot.

The results were based on a survey of 1,170 plots and half-a-million trees across the six-million-square-kilometre area, often described as the lungs of the world.

The authors said that the underlying cause of the hyper dominance of the 227 species, which accounted for 1.4% of the estimated number of species in the region, remained unknown.

"We knew that, normally, a few species dominate ecosystems, but if you have a system that has 16,000 tree species but just 227 make up half of the trees, that was pretty surprising even for us," said lead author Dr Hans ter Steege from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands.

He told the Science podcast: "We don't really know why these species are so incredibly dominant because they do not have any particular ecological feature that stands out."

Global alliance aims to tackle forest crime

 
Illegal logging damages biodiversity and undermines people's livelihoods.
 

Interpol and the United Nations have joined forces to launch an initiative to tackle global forest crime.

Project Leaf will target criminals involved in illegal logging and timber trafficking.

The scheme will also provide support to enforcement agencies in countries

with the biggest problems, Interpol said.

It is estimated that more than a quarter of the world's population relies on

forests for their livelihoods, fuel, food and medicines.

David Higgins, Interpol's Environmental Crime Programme manager, said that

illegal logging was no longer a issue that was restricted by national

boundaries.

"The international legislation to protect forests and curtail illegal logging

demonstrates this," he commented.

"Project leaf will ensure these global laws are supported by global

enforcement and that the criminals responsible are brought to justice - no

matter their location, movements or resources."

Project leaf (Law Enforcement Assistance for Forests) is a partnership

between the UN Environment Programme (Unep) and Interpol, with funding provided

by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.