Tradeoffs between income, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning during tropical rainforest conversion and agroforestry intensification
Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter,Michael Kessler,Jan Barkmann,Merijn M. Bos,Damayanti Buchori,Stefan Erasmi,Heiko Faust,Gerhard Gerold,Klaus Glenk,S. Robbert Gradstein,Edi Guhardja,Marieke Harteveld,Dietrich Hertel,Patrick Höhn,Martin Kappas,Stefan Köhler,Christoph Leuschner,Miet Maertens,Rainer Marggraf,Sonja Migge-Kleian,Johanis P. Mogea,Ramadhaniel Pitopang,Matthias Schaefer,Stefan Schwarze,Simone G. Sporn,Andrea Steingrebe,Sri S. Tjitrosoedirdjo,Soekisman Tjitrosoemito,André Twele,Robert J. Weber,Lars Woltmann,Manfred Zeller,Teja Tscharntke +32 more
TLDR
It is concluded that low-shade agroforestry provides the best available compromise between economic forces and ecological needs, and Certification schemes for shade-grown crops may provide a market-based mechanism to slow down current intensification trends.Abstract:
Losses of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning due to rainforest destruction and agricultural intensification are prime concerns for science and society alike. Potentially, ecosystems show nonlinear responses to land-use intensification that would open management options with limited ecological losses but satisfying economic gains. However, multidisciplinary studies to quantify ecological losses and socioeconomic tradeoffs under different management options are rare. Here, we evaluate opposing land use strategies in cacao agroforestry in Sulawesi, Indonesia, by using data on species richness of nine plant and animal taxa, six related ecosystem functions, and on socioeconomic drivers of agroforestry expansion. Expansion of cacao cultivation by 230% in the last two decades was triggered not only by economic market mechanisms, but also by rarely considered cultural factors. Transformation from near-primary forest to agroforestry had little effect on overall species richness, but reduced plant biomass and carbon storage by ≈75% and species richness of forest-using species by ≈60%. In contrast, increased land use intensity in cacao agroforestry, coupled with a reduction in shade tree cover from 80% to 40%, caused only minor quantitative changes in biodiversity and maintained high levels of ecosystem functioning while doubling farmers' net income. However, unshaded systems further increased income by ≈40%, implying that current economic incentives and cultural preferences for new intensification practices put shaded systems at risk. We conclude that low-shade agroforestry provides the best available compromise between economic forces and ecological needs. Certification schemes for shade-grown crops may provide a market-based mechanism to slow down current intensification trends.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecosystem services and agriculture: tradeoffs and synergies.
TL;DR: The tradeoffs that may occur between provisioning services and other ecosystem services and disservices should be evaluated in terms of spatial scale, temporal scale and reversibility, and the potential for ‘win–win’ scenarios increases.
Journal ArticleDOI
Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes - eight hypotheses
Teja Tscharntke,Jason M. Tylianakis,Tatyana A. Rand,Raphael K. Didham,Raphael K. Didham,Raphael K. Didham,Lenore Fahrig,Péter Batáry,Péter Batáry,Janne Bengtsson,Yann Clough,Thomas O. Crist,Carsten F. Dormann,Robert M. Ewers,Jochen Fründ,Robert D. Holt,Andrea Holzschuh,Alexandra M. Klein,David Kleijn,Claire Kremen,Doug A. Landis,William F. Laurance,David B. Lindenmayer,Christoph Scherber,Navjot S. Sodhi,Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter,Carsten Thies,Wim H. van der Putten,Catrin Westphal +28 more
TL;DR: This review uses knowledge gained from human‐modified landscapes to suggest eight hypotheses, which it hopes will encourage more systematic research on the role of landscape composition and configuration in determining the structure of ecological communities, ecosystem functioning and services.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification
Teja Tscharntke,Yann Clough,Thomas C. Wanger,Thomas C. Wanger,Louise E. Jackson,Iris Motzke,Iris Motzke,Ivette Perfecto,John Vandermeer,Anthony M. Whitbread +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the true value of functional biodiversity on the farm is often inadequately acknowledged or understood, while conventional intensification tends to disrupt beneficial functions of biodiversity.
Special Issue Article: Advancing Environmental Conservation: Essays In Honor Of Navjot Sodhi Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification
Journal ArticleDOI
Landscape effects on crop pollination services: are there general patterns?
Taylor H. Ricketts,James Regetz,Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter,Saul A. Cunningham,Claire Kremen,Anne K. Bogdanski,Barbara Gemmill-Herren,Sarah S. Greenleaf,Alexandra-Maria Klein,Alexandra-Maria Klein,Margaret M. Mayfield,Laura A. Morandin,Alfred Ochieng,Blande F. Viana +13 more
TL;DR: Tropical crops pollinated primarily by social bees may be most susceptible to pollination failure from habitat loss, and the general relationship between pollination services and distance from natural or semi-natural habitats is estimated.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities
Norman Myers,Russell A. Mittermeier,Cristina G. Mittermeier,Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca,Jennifer Kent +4 more
TL;DR: A ‘silver bullet’ strategy on the part of conservation planners, focusing on ‘biodiversity hotspots’ where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat, is proposed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices
David Tilman,Kenneth G. Cassman,Pamela A. Matson,Pamela A. Matson,Rosamond L. Naylor,Stephen Polasky +5 more
TL;DR: A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Current Knowledge and Future Challenges
Michel Loreau,Shahid Naeem,Pablo Inchausti,Jan Bengtsson,J. P. Grime,Andy Hector,David U. Hooper,Michael A. Huston,Dave Raffaelli,Bernhard Schmid,David Tilman,David A. Wardle +11 more
TL;DR: Larger numbers of species are probably needed to reduce temporal variability in ecosystem processes in changing environments and to determine how biodiversity dynamics, ecosystem processes, and abiotic factors interact.
Journal ArticleDOI
Consequences of changing biodiversity
F. Stuart Chapin,Erika S. Zavaleta,Valerie T. Eviner,Rosamond L. Naylor,Peter M. Vitousek,Heather L. Reynolds,David U. Hooper,Sandra Lavorel,Osvaldo E. Sala,Sarah E. Hobbie,Michelle C. Mack,Sandra Díaz +11 more
TL;DR: The large ecological and societal consequences of changing biodiversity should be minimized to preserve options for future solutions to global environmental problems.
Journal ArticleDOI
Landscape perspectives on agricultural intensification and biodiversity – ecosystem service management
TL;DR: In this article, the negative and positive effects of agricultural land use for the conservation of biodiversity, and its relation to ecosystem services, need a landscape perspective, which is difficult to be found in the literature.