Susan Laurance

Biography

I study how human activities impact tropical rainforest plant and wildlife communities. I am especially interested in how vulnerable wildlife and plant species are affected by major land-use and climate change. My work spans much of the tropical world, including the Amazon and tropical Australia. I have maintained a long-term involvement at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Brazil, which is the largest, longest-running experimental study into how human land-use impacts rainforest communities. This dataset has also contributed significantly to our current understanding of forest dynamics, floristic diversity and carbon stock and pulses in tropical rainforests. In Australia, I have developed an extensive research program that continues my work in global change and tropical forests at the Daintree Rainforest Observatory (DRO), where we have initiated an ambitious experiment to induce an artifical drought in order to study its effects on rainforest biodiversity. My other research programs include understanding the biotic and abiotic drivers of secondary forest composition and carbon sequestration, and how fragmentation and human land-use influences disease vectors. I am lead investigator on $1.6 million in research grants and have authored more than 100 peer-reviewed reserach articles.

Research Interest

Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Studies