Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The University of Queensland. Her research seeks to understand global drivers of land use change, particularly those related to mining and mineral processing, and mitigate their impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Themes
Telecoupling of land use systems, Land change trade-offs for ecosystem services and biodiversity , Land use and conflict
Older forests in eastern North America are less vulnerable to climate change than younger forests - particularly for carbon storage, timber production, and biodiversity - new University of Vermont research by GLM Members Laura Sonter and Gillian Galford and colleagues find.
GLP Member Laura Sonter's work on the environmental impact of mining in Brazil's Amazon was quoted in a lengthy piece in The Globe and Mail on Highway BR-163, which cuts a brutal path through Brazil’s conflicting ambitions: to transform itself into an economic powerhouse and to preserve the Amazon as a bulwark against climate change.
GLP Member Laura Sonter found mining significantly increased Amazon forest loss up to 70 km beyond mining lease boundaries, causing 11,670 km2 of deforestation between 2005 and 2015. This extent represents 9% of all Amazon forest loss during this time and 12 times more deforestation than occurred within mining leases alone.
