Monday 24 October 2011

Scientists join forest loggers in massive ecology experiment

  
Ecologists from Imperial College London have joined forest loggers of the Malaysian state-owned company the Malaysia Sabah Foundation to conduct the world’s biggest ecological experiment to date, the New Scientist reports. As the company has a massive deforestation program going ahead anyway - felling 75,000 hectares of rainforest on the island of Borneo and converting it to lucrative palm oil plantation - the Imperial College team decided to exploit it to examine the ecological effects of large-scale habitat fragmentation. The aim of the experiment is to gain insight on how to design landscapes to support multiple demands (both ecological and commercial) at a minimal cost to the ecosystem.

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to read the article on the New Scientist website.

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