Thomas E. Lovejoy, Frontiers of Knowledge laureate in Ecology and Conservation Biology, dies aged 80

In the 1970s, Professor Lovejoy, then a research associate at the Smithsonian Institute for Tropical Research (STRI), realized there was an urgent need to study the effects of fragmentation on the Amazon rainforest. With this in mind, he launched the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP), a joint venture between the Smithsonian and Brazil’s Amazonian Research Institute which was the largest study, in space and duration, ever conducted on fragmented forest habitat.

The BDFFP covered an area of more than 1,000 km2. It took in vast stretches of intact Amazonia, as well as numerous forest plots of between 1 and 100 hectares which had been progressively cut off by clearcutting and pastureland. BDFFP researchers censused all these area for trees, birds, primates, small mammals, amphibians and insects both before deforestation – from 1979 to 1983 – and afterwards, at regular intervals. The result was an invaluable resource: a catalogue of the species present, and their abundance, prior to deforestation.

Analysis of these data yielded up new findings. For example, Laurance and Lovejoy discovered that the changes taking place on the edges of artificially fragmented plots were rippling out across an unexpectedly large area, with impacts detected over a distance of some 10 km. Moreover, changes in the natural microclimates of forest remnants had triggered a dramatic rise in tree mortality, especially among the tallest specimens. And when a big tree dies in Amazonia, it takes with it a marvelously complex vertical ecosystem, a honeycomb of ecological niches as densely constructed as the Manhattan skyscrapers – only, in this case, skyscrapers that house a different animal or plant species in each of their apartments. Tree death, therefore, meant a serious loss of biomass.

The dramatic impact of habitat fragmentation

In the words of the committee deciding the inaugural Frontiers Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology, Lovejoy’s research, along with his colleague Laurance, revealed “many unexpected features of habitat fragmentation, such as dramatically increased mortality in forest trees, with far-reaching consequences for the preservation of forest biodiversity and carbon pool dynamics. Insights from this study have significantly influenced conservation science and practice.”
The committee also singled out the laureates’ endeavors in training new generations of Amazonia researchers and in sharing skills and knowledge to ensure their work was carried on for years to come. So much so that their conservation practices had become benchmarks of their kind.
On receiving the Frontiers Award, Professor Lovejoy explained that the goal of his work was essentially “an attempt to understand biological diversity and to ascertain how we can co-exist with the marvelous variety of life to be found in the tropical rainforest.” The biologist also warned that his scientific studies had left little room for doubt: “Amazonia is now perilously close to the point of no return. Ecosystem degradation is advancing much faster than we imagined, though we must take hope from the ambitious conservation initiatives that are now starting up.”

Bio notes

Born in New York in 1941, Thomas E. Lovejoy earned a PhD in Biology from Yale University in 1971, and was University Professor in the Environmental Science and Policy Department at George Mason University (United States), as well as Chairman of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies. In the course of his career, he directed the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) Conservation Program (1973-1987), and served as Assistant Secretary for Environmental and External Affairs for the Smithsonian Institution (1987-1998), Chief Biodiversity Advisor to the President of the World Bank (1999-2002), President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment (2002-2008), Chair of the Independent Advisory Group on Sustainability for the Inter-American Development Bank (2010-2011) and Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation.

In addition to the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology, Lovejoy was distinguished with the prestigious Tyler Prize (2002) and Blue Planet Prize (2012). He also served on numerous scientific and conservation boards and advisory groups, and was a member of the National Geographic Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the Linnaean Society of London, among others. In 2016, he was appointed as a U.S. Science Envoy by the State Department of the United States.