Under the scope of the CHANGE’s Exploratory Ideas Call, the project Road Networks as Disruptors of Ecological Networks, led by the researchers Frederico Mestre, Vinicius Bastazini and Fernando Ascensão, highlights the profound impacts of roads on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. By analyzing data from 551 species across different trophic levels, the researchers identified that road density can lead to the loss of essential trophic interactions — such as predator-prey relationships — and, in some regions of Europe, more than 90% of these interactions may be affected.
This work emphasizes that, although large predators are less impacted by roads, species at lower trophic levels, such as prey and small animals, are particularly vulnerable to roadkill, potentially triggering cascading effects throughout the ecological network.
The project, which resulted in a publication in the journal Conservation Biology, identifies critical areas where the negative effects of roads are most intense, particularly near large cities, and suggests that public policies and conservation strategies should take into account the impacts of road infrastructure on biodiversity.