Tropical land use drives endemic versus exotic ant communities in a global biodiversity hotspot

Rakotomalala, Anjaharinony A. N. A.; Wurz, Annemarie; Graß, Ingo; Martin, Dominic A.; Osen, Kristina; Schwab, Dominik; Soazafy, Marie Rolande; Tscharntke, Teja; Ravaomanarivo, Lala Harivelo Raveloson

doi:10.1007/s10531-021-02314-4

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(67 reference statements)

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“…The extensive management of vanilla as well as its setting in a diverse mosaic landscape with forest remnants contribute to their high biodiversity and species richness that for some taxa (e.g. butterflies, ants) can equal that of old-growth forest at the plot level 53 , 54 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Once they are established, vanilla agroforests are unlikely to be transformed into other land-use types due to their high profitability 57 and thus present a leverage point for breaking out of the shifting cultivation cycle that degrades much of the agricultural land in Madagascar 57 . Vanilla agroforests offer longlasting opportunities for biodiversity and tree stand structures to recover 12 , 38 , allowing associated biodiversity and ecosystem services to increase 57 and species composition to be partially restored compared to fallow land 54 . Tree regrowth in fallow-derived agroforests is particularly valuable to supplement and connect the few remaining forest fragments across the agricultural matrix 58 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We sampled ground-foraging ants using bait and pitfall traps 54 . We conducted the sampling in all villages between October and December 2017, and in the old-growth forest in August and December 2018.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Win-win opportunities combining high yields with high multi-taxa biodiversity in tropical agroforestry

et al. 2022

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Resolving ecological-economic trade-offs between biodiversity and yields is a key challenge when addressing the biodiversity crisis in tropical agricultural landscapes. Here, we focused on the relation between seven different taxa (trees, herbaceous plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies, and ants) and yields in vanilla agroforests in Madagascar. Agroforests established in forests supported overall 23% fewer species and 47% fewer endemic species than old-growth forests, and 14% fewer endemic species than forest fragments. In contrast, agroforests established on fallows had overall 12% more species and 38% more endemic species than fallows. While yields increased with vanilla vine density and length, non-yield related variables largely determined biodiversity. Nonetheless, trade-offs existed between yields and butterflies as well as reptiles. Vanilla yields were generally unrelated to richness of trees, herbaceous plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and ants, opening up possibilities for conservation outside of protected areas and restoring degraded land to benefit farmers and biodiversity alike.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Win-win opportunities combining high yields with high multi-taxa biodiversity in tropical agroforestry

et al. 2022

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Once they are established, vanilla agroforests are unlikely to be transformed into other land-use types due to their high profitability (Martin et al 2022) and thus present a leverage point for breaking out of the shifting cultivation cycle that degrades much of the agricultural land in Madagascar (Martin et al 2022). Vanilla agroforests offer long-lasting opportunities for biodiversity and tree stand structures to recover , allowing associated biodiversity and ecosystem services to increase (Martin et al 2022) and species composition to be partially restored compared to fallow land (Rakotomalala et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity and ecosystem services in a tropical smallholder landscape in Madagascar

Wurz¹

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The overarching theme of this thesis is how biodiversity and ecosystem services respond to land-use change by smallholder farming in north-eastern Madagascar. The region is a global biodiversity hotspot and a major vanilla production area, where shifting cultivation and cash cropping are driving forest-agriculture frontiers. However, little is known about the value of shifting cultivation and vanilla agroforestry for biodiversity and ecosystem services. In addition, knowledge on sustainable land management to aid biodiversity conservation and livelihoods is urgently needed. My dissertation closes this research gap by investigating ecosystem services and the (endemic) diversity of herbaceous plants, ants, and butterflies in prevalent land-use types (forest fragment, vanilla agroforest, woody fallow, herbaceous fallow, and rice paddy), with old-growth forest as a baseline. To do so, we applied the framework of land-use history and differentiated land-use types depending on the method of land clearance into forest-and fallow-derived or burned and unburned. Furthermore, we categorized species depending on their origin into endemic, native, and exotic.Overall, we found biodiversity to show mixed responses to land-use change depending on taxa, land-use history, and species origin (Chapter 2-4). Endemic herbaceous plants and ants decreased while exotics increased with increasing land-use intensification. In addition, endemic herbaceous plant and ant richness were higher on unburned than on burned land-use types and their composition was similar among unburned land-use types. We recommend increasing canopy closure and maintaining landscape forest cover to increase endemic ants while containing both exotic ants and herbaceous plants. For butterflies, we found that, in particular, land-use types with woody vegetation harbor diverse forest and endemic species, whereas herbaceous fallow and rice paddy are rich in open-land species. We show that the establishment of vanilla agroforests on fallow land increases endemic species of both butterflies and ants. For all three taxa (ants, butterflies, and herbaceous plants), we highlight that old-growth forest remains a key habitat for conservation, as it harbors a unique species community of ants, butterflies, and herbaceous plants.The alteration of predation can indicate changes in biological pest control, an important ecosystem service in the context of agricultural production. Using caterpillar dummies, we found predation rates to be higher on unburned than on formerly burned land-use types (Chapter 5). In addition, old-growth forest and forest fragment harbored one unique predator community and showed the highest predation rates. To increase predation rates in vanilla agroforests, we recommend preserving or promote trees and dense understory vegetation. natürlichen Bestäubung bieten kann, wie zum Beispiel die Kontrolle über Pollenherkunft undmenge, Bestäubungszeitpunkt und -häufigkeit sowie die Unabhängigkeit von Umweltschwankungen. Die Hauptnachteile der Handbestäubung sind jed...

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Agroforestry in Madagascar: past, present, and future

Andriatsitohaina,

Laby,

Llopis

et al. 2024

Agroforest Syst

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Agroforestry systems promise a high multifunctionality providing cash and subsistence yields as well as other ecosystem services. Such land systems may be particularly promising for smallholders in tropical landscapes due to high labour intensity and productivity on limited land. Focusing on Madagascar, we here describe the history of agroforestry in the country and review the current literature on agroforestry outcomes as well as factors promoting and hindering agroforest establishment and maintenance. From this, we discuss the potential future of agroforestry in Madagascar. Historically, many crops farmed today in agroforestry systems were originally introduced as plantation crops, mostly in the nineteenth century. Since then, people co-opted these crops into mixed agroforestry systems, often focusing on clove, vanilla, coffee, or cocoa in combination with fruit trees or, for clove, with livestock. Other crops are also integrated, but shares are comparatively low. Overall, 27.4% of Malagasy exports are crops typically farmed in agroforestry systems, providing income for at least 500,000 farmers. Outcomes of agroforestry for biodiversity and ecosystem services are commonly researched, showing benefits over annual crops and monocultures. Social-economic outcomes, including yields, are more scarcely researched, but findings point towards financial benefits for smallholder farmers and a sense of community and collective memory. However, findings emphasize that research gaps remain in terms of geographic and crop coverage, also for ecological outcomes. Looking to the future, we highlight the need to overcome hurdles such as land tenure insecurity, financial barriers to implementation, and unstable value chains to scale agroforestry in Madagascar to the benefit of multifunctional land systems and human wellbeing.

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Tropical land use drives endemic versus exotic ant communities in a global biodiversity hotspot

Cited by 11 publications

References 51 publications

Win-win opportunities combining high yields with high multi-taxa biodiversity in tropical agroforestry

Win-win opportunities combining high yields with high multi-taxa biodiversity in tropical agroforestry

Biodiversity and ecosystem services in a tropical smallholder landscape in Madagascar

Agroforestry in Madagascar: past, present, and future

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