Research
Making scientific research accessible
Here you’ll find easy-to-read summaries of scientifically rigorous, evidence-based and peer-reviewed publications from around the world to help you better plan, build and manage ecologically sustainable linear infrastructure.
Research summaries are listed chronologically according to when they were published here. To find information on a specific topic, please use the SEARCH function and search by keywords, including topic, species, location and/or author.
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Have you recently published a peer-reviewed scientific paper on transportation and ecology? Do you want practitioners all around the world to find and use your results? Then you need to contribute a Research Summary!
Roads are a severe threat to apex predators across the globe
Apex predators play critical roles in maintaining ecosystem health, but our meta-analysis on 36 species from around the world found all are affected by roads, and particularly in Asia. Proposed road projects in the Brazilian Amazon, Africa and Nepal will affect roughly 500 protected areas and threaten what little remains of apex predator’s core habitats, driving many species closer to extinction. Better planning to avoid such areas is urgently needed.
Good news: highway underpasses for wildlife actually work
Underpasses are a useful tool to enable wildlife to move across landscapes with roads. Not all ground-dwelling species of wildlife will find underpasses to their liking, but many do. Underpasses are also not a panacea for impacts on wildlife. And we shouldn’t use their effectiveness as a justification to run highways through pristine areas. They’re a tool to minimise impacts of road projects that have wide community support.
Wolves and Prey Species use Green Bridges to cross over Busy Highway in Germany
Wolves are recolonizing many parts of central Europe, which often requires them to cross roads to reach new habitats and territories. We found that green bridges (also known as land bridges) are used by wolves and by their prey, and reduce the risk that wolves are involved in wildlife-vehicle collisions.