A recent study by researchers from Lancaster University and University of Oxford has found that human disturbances such as selective logging, wildfires in primary forests, and clear felling followed by regrowth are radically altering the ecological function and evolutionary composition of the Amazon Rainforest. By measuring species diversity, functional traits (like bark thickness, leaf size, wood density) and phylogenetic (evolutionary lineage) diversity across 215 plots and more than 55,000 trees, they determined that even so-called “sustainable” practices significantly reduce diversity across all these dimensions.Importantly, the modifications don’t just reduce numbers they change which species and lineages dominate (for example, favouring fast-growing pioneer trees over slower, large old-growth species).

Source: Environmental News Network