Publications

Yadvinder Malhi, Terhi Riutta, Oliver R. Wearn, Nicolas J. Deere, Simon L. Mitchell, Henry Bernard, Noreen Majalap, Reuben Nilus, Zoe G. Davies, Robert M. Ewers & Matthew J. Struebig (2021). Logged tropical forests have amplified and diverse ecosystem energetics. Nature.

Metabolic approach to forest ecosystem health

Do metabolic ecology approaches offer a useful new approach to assessing ecosystem health and nature recovery? Our research uses areas of old growth and selectively logged forest to assess this approach.

Ryan Veryard, Jinhui Wu, Michael J. O’Brien, Rosila Anthony, Sabine Both6, David F.R.P. Burslem, Bin Chen, Elena Fernandez-Miranda Cagigal, H. Charles J. Godfray, Elia Godoong, Shunlin Liang, Philippe Saner, Bernhard Schmid, Yap Sau Wai, Jun Xie, Glen Reynolds, and Andy Hector (2023). Positive effects of tree diversity on tropical forest restoration in a field-scale experiment. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adf0938.

Active restoration of selectively logged forest

The dipterocarp trees that dominate the lowland forests of Southeast Asia have traits that mean they may be slow to naturally recover from selective-logging and other disturbances. Can active restoration techniques accelerate forest recovery? Our research uses the experimental treatments of Sabah Biodiversity Experiment to assess the effectiveness of replanting with different species and of ‘climber cutting’ – the removal of climbing liana species.

Charles J. Marsh, Edgar C. Turner, Benjamin Wong Blonder, Boris Bongalov, Sabine Both, Rudi S. Cruz , Dafydd M. O. Elias, David Hemprich-Bennett, Palasiah Jotan, Victoria Kemp, Ully H. Kritzler, Sol Milne, David T. Milodowski, Simon L. Mitchell , Milenka Montoya Pillco, Matheus Henrique Nunes, Terhi Riutta, Samuel J. B. Robinson, Eleanor M. Slade, Henry Bernard, David F. R. P. Burslem, Arthur Y. C. Chung, Elizabeth L. Clare, David A. Coomes, Zoe G. Davies, David P. Edwards, David Johnson, Pavel Kratina, Yadvinder Malhi, Noreen Majalap, Reuben Nilus, Nicholas J. Ostle, Stephen J. Rossiter, Matthew J. Struebig, Joseph A. Tobias, Mathew Williams, Robert M. Ewers, Owen T. Lewis, Glen Reynolds, Yit Arn Teh, Andy Hector (2025). Tropical forest clearance impacts biodiversity and function, whereas logging changes structure. Science.

The natural value of recovering selectively logged forests
Large areas of forest in Borneo have been selectively logged and are now undergoing recovery – how do these selectively logged forests differ from their undisturbed old growth counterparts and what are the consequences if they are converted to oil palm plantation?

Summary of thesis: Recognitional equity in access to and planning of urban green spaces: How socio-economic deprivation shapes community values and participation in place-based governance.

Equity of access to, and planning of, Urban Green Spaces (UGS) is an area of growing interest in a period in which urban greening is intertwined with equity issues in socially diverse urban centres. While efforts to widen communities’ spatial access to UGS and procedural representation in their planning through more inclusive place-based governance arrangements have been made, little attention has been paid to the recognitional dimension of equity, here understood as recognition of communities’ lived experience of deprivation and historic relations with institutions. This thesis takes an intra- and inter-community comparative approach between three areas of Oxford with low, mid-high and high deprivation levels, and varying types of neighbourhood or regeneration plans.

Art and Nature in The Leys

A free, drop-in family-friendly event led by researchers Martha Crockatt and Mattia Troiano, developed in collaboration with Natasha Summer, a local community champion, and in partnership with the Oxfordshire African Caribbean Multicultural Society. It was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Festival of Social Science.

The Screaming Sky: The strange allure of swifts. Charles Foster

Swifts inhabit the air as few other organisms do. This talk is an account of an attempt by an earthbound man to follow them there: on their migration routes to and from Africa, their winter travels, dodging African storms and hunting insects that spring up with the rains, and in their brief summer stay in the skies and eaves of Oxford

Lost Nature

Research from Wild Justice shows only 53% of on-site environmental measures legally secured through the development process are actually delivered in reality.

Read the Wild Justice Lost Nature Summary here

LCNR 2023/4 at a glance

This infographic shows the Centre’s achievements for the 2023/2024 reporting year

LCNR Annual Report

This is the Centre’s Annual Report for the 2023/2024 reporting year.

Hannah S. Wauchope, Sophus O. S. E. zu Ermgassen, Julia P. G. Jones, Harrison Carter, Henrike Schulte to Bühne and E. J. Milner-Gulland (2024). What is a unit of nature? Measurement challenges in the emerging biodiversity credit market. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Bending the curve of biodiversity loss requires the business and financial sectors to disclose and reduce their biodiversity impacts and help fund nature recovery. This has sparked interest in developing generalizable, standardized measurements of biodiversity—essentially a ‘unit of nature’. We examine how such units are defined in the rapidly growing voluntary biodiversity credits market and present a framework exploring how biodiversity is quantified, how delivery of positive outcomes is detected and attributed to the investment and how the number of credits issued is adjusted to account for uncertainties….

Nature Seminar Series: Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World

Joe Roman dives deep into the critical role animals play in shaping our world, drawing from his book Eat Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World. Discover how animals are essential to nature recovery and biodiversity, acting as key players in the nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon cycles. Roman highlights fascinating examples, such as seabirds that helped create a thriving grassland ecosystem on a volcanic island in Iceland, and the important research on nutrient movement by feeding and fasting whales. As global wildlife populations face unprecedented threats, Roman emphasizes the importance of conservation efforts, rewilding native species, and restoring ancient nutrient pathways for healthier ecosystems.