Cross-boundary subsidy cascades from oil palm degrade distant tropical forests

Does production of oil palm, soybean or jatropha change biodiversity and ecosystem functions in tropical forests?

Background: Biofuels, or fuels derived from transformation of biological matter, are hailed by some as a promising source of renewable energy potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A widespread adoption of biofuels will however present its own set of challenges and consequences. Direct or indirect land use change due to expansion of feedstock cultivation can cause deforestation and fore...

Remotely sensed evidence of tropical peatland conversion to oil palm.

Rising global demands for food and biofuels are driving forest clearance in the tropics. Oil-palm expansion contributes to biodiversity declines and carbon emissions in Southeast Asia. However, the magnitudes of these impacts remain largely unquantified until now. We produce a 250-m spatial resolution map of closed canopy oil-palm plantations in the lowlands of Peninsular Malaysia (2 million ha...

Degradation of Root Community Traits as Indicator for Transformation of Tropical Lowland Rain Forests into Oil Palm and Rubber Plantations

Conversion of tropical forests into intensely managed plantations is a threat to ecosystem functions. On Sumatra, Indonesia, oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations are rapidly expanding, displacing rain forests and extensively used rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) agro-forests. Here, we tested the influence of land use systems on root traits including chemical traits (carbon, nitrogen, mineral nut...

Nitrogen management is essential to prevent tropical oil palm plantations from causing ground-level ozone pollution.

More than half the world's rainforest has been lost to agriculture since the Industrial Revolution. Among the most widespread tropical crops is oil palm (Elaeis guineensis): global production now exceeds 35 million tonnes per year. In Malaysia, for example, 13% of land area is now oil palm plantation, compared with 1% in 1974. There are enormous pressures to increase palm oil production for foo...

Palm oil carotenoids: The isolation of lipoid pigments from a ;Sherbro' palm oil.