Landscape heterogeneity and soil biota are central to multi-taxa diversity for landscape restoration

Abstract

How to enhance biodiversity in monoculture-dominated landscapes is a key sustainability question that requires considering the spatial organization of ecological communities (beta diversity). Here, we experimentally tested if increasing landscape heterogeneity - through tree islands - is a suitable landscape restoration strategy when aiming to enhance multi-taxa diversity. We found that multi-taxa diversity resulted from islands fostering unique species (turnover: between 0.18 - 0.73) rather than species losses and gains (nestedness: between 0.03 - 0.34), suggesting that tree islands enhance diversity at the landscape scale. Through partial correlation networks, we revealed that landscape heterogeneity is associated with multi-taxa diversity (strength = 0.84). Soil biota were also central to the overall community by connecting beta diversity patterns across taxa. Our results show that increasing landscape heterogeneity enhances multi-taxa diversity in monoculture-dominant landscapes. Furthermore, we highlight that strategies aiming to enhance multi-taxa diversity should consider that spatial distributions of above- and below-ground communities are associated.

Planting diversity begets multifaceted tree diversity in oil palm landscapes

“…Recent findings suggest that tree islands established through active tree planting can enhance multi-taxa species diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality within large-scale oil palm plantations 10,23 . However, increasing also functional and phylogenetic diversity of restored ecosystems is an important step towards improving ecosystem functioning, resilience to environmental disturbances or disease outbreaks, adaptation to changing conditions such as climate change or invasive species, and nature’s contribution to people 24–27 .…”

Scale-dependent landscape-biodiversity relationships shape multi-taxa diversity in an oil palm monoculture under restoration

“…2020). One such implementation, tree islands — clusters of trees integrated into agricultural landscapes through natural regeneration or native tree planting — can enhance local and landscape biodiversity (Corbin & Holl 2012; Montoya-Sánchez et al . 2023; Zemp et al .…”

“…Designer landscapes incorporating agroforestry zones can improve ecological connectivity, alleviate edge and matrix effects, and increase landscape heterogeneity (Koh et al 2009;Arroyo-Rodríguez et al 2020). One such implementation, tree islands -clusters of trees integrated into agricultural landscapes through natural regeneration or native tree planting -can enhance local and landscape biodiversity (Corbin & Holl 2012;Montoya-Sánchez et al 2023;Zemp et al 2023) with minimal costs and impediments to yields (Gérard et al 2017;Holl et al 2020;Shaw et al 2020). For example, incorporating tree islands in an oil palm-dominated landscape increased multi-taxa diversity due to changes in vegetation structure and microclimate (Teuscher et al 2016;Zemp et al 2019Zemp et al , 2023Donfack et al 2021).…”