What is LEAP?

LEAP brings together a team of landscape ecologists, primatologists, biogeographers, and specialists in remote sensing, carbon stock assessment and forest inventory, led by Amanda H. Korstjens and Ross A. Hill from Bournemouth University, with Serge A. Wich and Matthew Nowak.

To develop methods for rapid assessment of forest structure and relate this to carbon stocks stored in tree biomass and habitat quality for keystone species.

Deforestation, encroachment and climate change are causing wide-scale disturbance of tropical forests, impacting the carbon cycle and causing the extinction of forest-dependent species. LEAP investigates how tropical deforestation and degradation affect ecosystem stability, species’ survival, and carbon pools.