Author Correction: Global expansion of the ecological impact of extra-urban road traffic

Correction to: Nature Sustainability https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01637-2, published online 18 September 2025.

Following publication of this article, an error has been identified in the code used to generate traffic volume predications for 1975 and 1990 as described by van Strien and Grêt-Regamey¹. The predictions for 2000 and 2015 remain unaffected. The code has been corrected, and the following amendments have been made as a result.

Plots and maps in Figs. 1–3, 5, Extended Data Figs. 1, 2 and data in the Supplementary Information have been replaced. In the Abstract, in the text now reading “We estimate that the extent of the global terrestrial land influenced by moderate to very high extra-urban road traffic increased by 61% since 1975,” 61% replaces “53%.” The same change was made in the first paragraph of the Discussion, in the sentence now reading “The total extent of the REZs caused by moderate to very high traffic expanded by 61% in four decades…”

In the first paragraph of the Results, in the text now reading “Between 1975 and 2015, the global extent of the extra-urban REZs caused by moderate to very high traffic (summed across all traffic impact classes) increased by 61%, from 148 to 239 million ha, corresponding to 1.1% to 1.8%, respectively,” 61, 148 and 1.1 now replace the original values “53%,” “156” and “1.2%.”

In the second paragraph of the Results, in the text now reading “In central, eastern, southern and southeastern Asia … very high traffic more than doubled between 1975 and 2015 (growth > 115%) … the total extent of extra-urban REZs grew by 593%, from 0.5% to 3.3% of the terrestrial land surface,” 115%, 593% and 0.5% now replace the original “111%,” “471%” and “0.6%.”

In the fourth paragraph of the Results, in the text now reading “The highest difference was found in southern Asia, where REZs caused by moderate traffic grew by 4.8% per year, whereas REZs caused by high traffic expanded by 11.2% per year (Fig. 3a). In southern and western Europe, the extent of REZs caused by moderate traffic even decreased (−0.3 and −0.5% per year, respectively,” the values 4.8%, 11.2% and −0.3 and −0.5% now replace the original “4.3%,” 81%” and “−0.2 and −0.4%.”

In the sixth paragraph of the Results, in the text now reading “Between 1975 and 2015, the share of key biodiversity areas containing REZs caused by moderate to very high traffic increased from 50% (7,462 areas) to 63% (9,309 areas). For REZs caused by very high traffic, this increase was from 10% to 19%. Between 1975 and 2015, the total extent of key biodiversity areas containing REZs caused by moderate to very high traffic increased by 65%, from 8 to 14 million ha,” the values 50%, 7,462 areas, 10%, 65% and 8 million now replace “52%,” “7,656 areas,” “11%,” “58%” and “9 million” in the original. Further in the sixth paragraph of the Results, in the text “For instance, in central Asia, REZs caused by very high traffic grew annually by 4.4%,” 4.4% now replaces “4.0%.”

In the seventh paragraph of the Results, in the text now reading “Between 1990 and 2015, the extent of cropland affected by REZs caused by moderate to very high traffic increased from 87 to 110 million ha, representing 4.1% of global cropland … REZ coverage in grassland and shrubland rose from 33 to 42 million ha, increasing from 1.1% to 1.5% of their global extent,” the values 87 million, 4.1% and 1.1% now replace the original “90 million,” “4.2%” and “1.2%.”

For comparison, original, uncorrected figures are available as Supplementary Information accompanying this amendment. The text, figures and Supplementary Information are now updated in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.