Validating biodiversity-ecosystem function theory for more-sustainable tropical agroecosystems

The biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship (BEFR) is a core tenet of ecological theory and predicts that enhancing the diversity of species, traits, and genes in a system will increase levels of functioning. Understanding BEFRs is crucial to assessing ecosystem responses to global change, yet BEFR research has mostly occurred in the temperate and boreal biomes, with the tropics largely neglected. In comparison to BEFRs in temperate and boreal biomes, it is possible that tropical BEFRs will be relatively stronger, owing to increased niche partitioning resulting from an inherently higher species diversity. Under this hypothesis, more biodiversity is needed to maintain functioning in tropical landscapes. BEF4TropiAg will validate this hypothesis by establishing a large-scale field experiment, which applies a seeding-based approach to manipulate the number of plant species and functional diversity in the understory in oil palm plantations (Indonesia). After sowing the experimental mixtures, we will assess the effects of enhanced plant diversity on cross-taxa biodiversity and multiple functions, and quantify the biological mechanisms underlying biodiversity effects on functioning. Finally, to make findings more relevant to real-world farmers, we will determine the economic viability of the diversified understory vegetation management, leveraging our novel ecological insights into more-sustainable oil palm management practices.

BEF4TropiAg is supported by an Academy Research Fellowship from the Research Council of Finland. Led by Dr Michael Pashkevich in Luke’s Forest Health and Biodiversity Group, it involves international academic collaborators including within Luke and from the University of Cambridge (UK), IPB University Bogor (Indonesia), and Ghent University (Belgium), as well as a palm oil industry partner, Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology Research Institute (SMARTRI).