The Amazon Basin appears poised to experience rapid expansion of oil palm agriculture. Nearly half of Amazonia is suitable for oil palm cultivation, and Malaysian corporations are now moving aggressively into the region to establish new plantations. Strong economic incentives for a major Amazonian oil palm industry are likely, given growing global demands for edible oils, oil-based products, an...

North Queensland is a major repository of biodiversity in Australia. From the perspective of industry proponents, the impacts of plantation developments on biodiversity deserve consideration because these impacts are likely to influence public acceptance of proposals and whether proposals can attract environmentally-linked funding and marketing opportunities. At the same time, plantations offer...

This study examines the consequences of adjacent elements for a given patch, through their effects on zoochorous dispersion by frugivorous birds. The case study consists of pine plantations (the focal patch) adjacent to other patches of native vegetation (mixed patches of native forest and shrublands), and/or pine plantations. Our hypothesis is that input of native woody species propagules gene...

Although there is renewed interest in intensively managed, short-rotation plantations as a source of hardwood for pulp mills, few have been established in the Southeast. Understanding all the costs associated with these plantations will help determine their feasibility. Using a model developed to summarize all the costs, a break-even analysis was completed to determine the delivered cost for pl...

The ecological impacts of forest plantations are a focus of intense debate, from studies that consider plantations as "biological deserts" to studies showing positive effects on plant diversity and dynamics. This lack of consensus might be influenced by the scarcity of studies that examine how the ecological characteristics of plantations vary along abiotic and biotic gradients. Here we conduct...

BACKGROUND One major consequence of economic development in South-East Asia has been a rapid expansion of rubber plantations, in which outbreaks of dengue and malaria have occurred. Here we explored the difference in risk of exposure to potential dengue, Japanese encephalitis (JE), and malaria vectors between rubber workers and those engaged in traditional forest activities in northern Laos PDR...

This research was carried out in order to quantify throughfall (TF) and interception loss (I) and to compare the chemical composition of TF, i.e. lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) as well as electrical conductivity (EC) and pH beneath Pinus eldarica and Cupressus arizonica plantations and the open field rainfall. The research was accomplished in the Chitgar Forest Park, a semi-arid polluted urban area...

plantations may influence soil fauna directly or indirectly. this research was conducted in order to study the influence of species plantations on soil macrofauna. plantations of eight tree species including nitrogen fixing trees and non-nitrogen fixing trees based on complete randomized block design with 3 replicates were established in 1372 in dez riverside. soil macrofauna were studied rando...

A large area of plantations has been established worldwide and especially in China. Evaluating the restoration status of these plantations is essential for their long-term management. Based on our previous work, we used an ecological memory (EM) approach to evaluate four 26-year-old plantations that represent four common kinds of plantations in subtropical China, i.e., mixed broad-leaved planta...