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.

SUBMIT YOUR RESEARCH

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!

Darrelle Moffat Darrelle Moffat

In search of the ideal underpass for wild animals

Designing crossing structures for wildlife underneath roads is a challenge because species may respond differently to factors such as nearby habitat or crossing-structure dimensions. Here we show that large, open crossing structures along natural travel corridors accommodate the highest diversity of large and medium-sized mammals.

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Katherine Aburrow Katherine Aburrow

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.

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Darrelle Moffat Darrelle Moffat

Turn off the lights – Bats avoid lit underpasses

Lighting in wildlife underpasses significantly reduces their use by bats. Bats are more likely to cross the road rather than use the underpasses when they are lit, greatly increasing their risk of mortality.

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Steve Bega Steve Bega

Designing and testing under-road tunnels for Asian amphibians

Many populations of amphibians are declining rapidly across Asia and road kill is a significant cause. In this project, we designed and tested a range of culverts to identify amphibian-friendly options to mitigate roadkill and barrier effects of roads.

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Steve Bega Steve Bega

Where Jaguars Cross Other Will Follow

Jaguars together with other neotropical species only used purpose-built wildlife underpasses under a highway in Mexico, even when ‘large enough’ drainage structures were available. Drainage structures may work as crossings for some species but can’t substitute proper wildlife underpasses.

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