Megan K Sullivan

[5/5] 🌎 With #sustainableManagement #CongoBasin forests can support income-generating activities in countries with growing economies and support #conservation goals simultaneously. #SustainableForestry #ConservationScience

[4/5] 🛤️🐘 Sustainably managed #logging concessions may be able to serve as mixed-use #OECM #corridors: allowing low-impact #timber extraction, supporting connectivity for #elephant and wildlife populations, connecting $protectedAreas, and maintaining #biodiversity.

Forest elephant in Gabon. Photo credit: Liam Jasperse-Sjolander

[3/5] 🐘🌱 #Elephant trails influence #naturalRegeneration similarly to very low-intensity logging: seedling survival is lower on trails. Central African forests may be especially adapted to small disturbances from the presence of #megafauna. #CongoBasin #ForestDynamics

📸: Liam Jasperse-Sjolander

[2/5] 🌱🪵Very low-intensity #logging (<2 trees/ha) temporarily reduced seedling survival, then #naturalRegeneration recovered 4-14 years post logging, indicating that regeneration processes are resilient to small disturbances. #SustainableForestry

Timber and trails: Low‐intensity selective logging and elephant trails shape seedling dynamics in an Afrotropical forest Very low-intensity selective logging can be a compromise between strict conservation and income-generating land use in tropical forests. Investigating how selective logging influences the understory ...

[1/5]🌿🐘 Our new study finds that very low-intensity selective #logging and forest #elephants influence natural #regeneration in #CongoBasin forests

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#forestecol #biodiversity #climateAction #CongoBasin

Imagine what we could achieve with equitable investment in Africa’s rainforests: better science, stronger conservation, and support for the communities who protect these ecosystems. Without major investment in the Congo Basin, we cannot meet climate, biodiversity, or development targets.

There is almost 5x as much research coming out of the Amazon as the Congo Basin, and the Amazon receives more than 6x the international funding that the Congo Basin does.

Elephants Shape African Forests By Eating - and Excreting - Seeded Fruits - High Meadows Environmental Institute It’s no surprise that elephants rely on their ecosystems to thrive. But a new study finds that the relationship is reciprocal. The study—Context-dependent forest elephant seed dispersal: implications ...

Our research was featured in a Princeton news article from the High Meadows Environmental Institute! 🐘🌱

environment.princeton.edu/news/elephan...

Context‐dependent forest elephant seed dispersal: implications for pathways of elephant‐driven patterns of biodiversity and carbon storage Seed dispersal by frugivores facilitates plant reproduction, enhancing germination and seedling survival by reducing risks like diseases and predation under parent trees and potentially directing see...

[5/5] Read more here: doi.org/10.1002/oik....

@oikosjournal.bsky.social @nordicoikos.bsky.social

[4/5] If we want to model or quantify the ecological value of #forestElephants accurately, especially in contexts like #rewilding, #carbonOffset markets, or #biodiversityMonitoring, we need to better account for this context-dependency!

[3/5] What's the takeaway?

🌟Context matters!🌟

Models that inform nature-based climate solutions and biodiversity crediting schemes often assume that elephants have consistent, generalizable ecological roles. Our results challenge that assumption.

[2/5] Our new Oikos study found that:
1. Forest elephants disperse fewer seeds than in past studies
2. Species + traits of dispersed seeds vary strongly among sites
3. Elephants often disperse plants with high carbon storage potential, but the magnitude of this effect varies by site.

[1/5] Elephants shape forests by moving seeds, and carbon, across landscapes. 🌳🐘

But how consistent are their impacts across sites?

📸 : Liam Jasperse-Sjolander

Forest conservation has an unlikely ally: Faith Sacred forests have long been shielded from destruction by their communities. Recognition of that reality is growing in conservation circles.

Excited to see our meta-analysis on sacred forests & biodiversity conservation featured in the Christian Science Monitor! 🌿✨

Sacred natural sites play a powerful role in protecting species, check out the article to learn more.

@csmonitor.bsky.social @yalee360.bsky.social @yaleforestry.bsky.social

Research on Low-Intensity Logging in Gabon Forests Wins 2025 Bormann Prize Megan Sullivan’s study, conducted while a doctoral student at the Yale School of the Environment, offers insights on forest management that supports both conservation goals and local livelihoods.

Honored to be invited to speak at YSE's research day this year! Our GEC paper was the winner of this year's Bormann Prize 🌳 🪵

environment.yale.edu/news/article...

Belated life update: I recently started a new postdoc position at HMEI at Princeton! My project involves collaborating with multiple institutions across several countries in Central and East Africa to explore how elephants impact plant dynamics.

environment.princeton.edu/people/megan...

Tune in Weds, Sept 4th! 🍈🌳🦧
meet.google.com/tvt-ipnp-wyr

Logging done sustainably doesn’t have to harm ecosystem services, study finds Researchers have found that low-intensity logging of a tropical forest has no negative impacts on key ecosystem services such as the carbon storage and food availability for wildlife. But even at a sm...

Coverage from @mongabay.bsky.social on our most recent article on sustainble logging & ecosystem services impacts in Gabon! 🪵🌳🇬🇦

news.mongabay.com/2024/08/logg...

The puzzling ecology of African Marantaceae forests Marantaceae forests are tropical rainforests characterized by a continuous understory layer of perennial giant herbs and a near absence of tree regeneration. Although widespread in West-Central Afric....

Marantaceae forests as alternative stable states in tropical forests... very cool paper!! 🌿🌳🤓

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

TL;DR -
🪵 We found negative impacts of very-low intensity selective logging on seedling dynamics up to 4 years post-logging, and most of those impacts disappeared 14 years post-logging.
🐘 Elephant trails had both negative impacts on seedling survival and positive impacts on seedling recruitment.

This talk is now up online please check it out if you're interested! 🐘🪵🌱🇬🇦

youtu.be/aQ-oHN5IX5Y?...

Deadline extended! Celebrate ATBC's 60th Annual Meeting! #ATBCKigali2024 🌿 🌍 🇷🇼

Join us in Kigali! Submit your session proposals! Session Types: Symposia, Open Format Sessions, Workshops, and Short Courses. NEW DEADLINE to submit proposals: March 6th, 2024! Submit: conta.cc/3O9Hxjn

I will be giving a webinar talk tomorrow on some of my PhD work on understory forest dynamics in Gabon. Please join in at the link below if you're interested! @CoEBrwanda

Forest elephants are the ‘glue’ holding Congo rainforests together, experts say The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) makes the Congo Basin rainforest what it is today. As a key seed disperser, its dietary habits help construct the giant carbon-sequestering tree commun...

Podcast rec for anyone interested in forest elephants!

news.mongabay.com/2023/11/fore...

Thanks!

#HiSciSky 👋 I'm a postdoc / research affiliate at the University of Rwanda studying how climate change affects flower🌸 and fruit🍈 phenology in a montane tropical forest⛰🌳. Passionate about vegetation dynamics 🌾🌱🌳 & natural🐘 and human🪚🪵 disturbance.

Let's chat!!

#AcademicSky #WomenInSTEM