Aboveground carbon stocks in Madagascar’s vanilla production landscape – exploring rehabilitation through agroforestry in the light of land-use history

Soazafy, Marie Rolande; Osen, Kristina; Wurz, Annemarie; Raveloaritiana, Estelle; Martin, Dominic A.; Ranarijaona, Hery Lisy Tiana; Hölscher, Dirk

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01853

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…We assume that numerous endemic species are specialized for forest habitats and rely on habitat structural characteristics. In fact, a stand with a higher basal area implies higher biomass (Soazafy et al, 2021). The identity and composition of tree species within the diverse pool might hold particular relevance for forest-specialist species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On every plot, we measured diameter at breast height (DBH) and determined all species of trees with DBH ≥8 cm (Fig. A1), including arborescent herbs and palms, tree ferns, but excluding lianas (Osen et al, 2021; Soazafy et al, 2021). From these measured variables, we derived basal area (m 2 /ha), diameter diversity (effective number of DBH classes; Table A1; Ehbrecht et al, 2019), and tree species richness (number of tree species per plot).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stand structure as the proximate driver of endemic biodiversity and ecosystem functions in tropical mosaic landscapes

Rajaonarimalala,

Korol,

Andrianarimisa

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Transformation of forests into agricultural lands threatens biodiversity and ecosystem functions globally. In the biodiversity hotspot Madagascar, key ecosystem functions along with highly endemic flora and fauna are under threat. Comprehensive studies identifying proximate drivers are lacking, with no studies accounting for endemic species richness across multiple taxa. We assess how plot-scale stand structural attributes (basal area, leaf area index, diameter diversity, and tree species richness) and landscape-scale forest cover affect biodiversity (species richness of butterflies, ants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, herbaceous plants, and multidiversity) and ecosystem functions (soil organic carbon, predation rate, acoustic diversity index, and multifunctionality) in the tropical mosaic landscape of northeastern Madagascar. Across a prevalent land-use gradient in the region, we sampled five woody land-use types: old-growth forest, forest fragment, woody fallow, forest-derived and fallow-derived vanilla agroforests. Complexly structured stands with a larger basal area and higher tree species richness promoted greater endemic multidiversity and certain ecosystem functions. Landscape-scale forest cover significantly favored, particularly, endemic bird species richness. Our models explained 70% of the variance in endemic multidiversity, 26% in multidiversity, and 43% in multifunctionality. Significant effects directions of our predictors differed between taxa but were univocally positive for endemic species richness. Our findings highlight that a simplified stand structure, resulting from land-use change, substantially reduces endemic biodiversity and ecosystem functions in this historically forested region. Conservation actions should aim at maintaining complex stand structure in forests and agroforests, while restoration interventions should focus on re-building such structures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stand structure as the proximate driver of endemic biodiversity and ecosystem functions in tropical mosaic landscapes

Rajaonarimalala,

Korol,

Andrianarimisa

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…Indeed, the transformation of fallow land into agroforests can result in losses of provisioning ecosystem services (e.g., firewood, wild foods, timber) 61 . However, there is not yet a shortage of fallow land in northeastern Madagascar, and the loss of provisioning services through conversion to agroforests is readily offset by the associated benefits (e.g., cash crops, carbon storage) 61 , 62 . A heterogeneous landscape with multiple land uses is important to satisfy the needs of rural communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…Furthermore, a considerable amount of mitigation research focuses on carbon sequestration (Adetoye et al, 2018;Gonzalez-Sanchez et al, 2019), soil organic carbon (Vågen et al, 2005;Swanepoel et al, 2016), REDD, and REDD+ (Rahlao et al, 2012;Soliev et al, 2021). The Congo Basin, Cameroon, Madagascar, and Zambia are often the focus areas of such research that generate knowledge regarding the role of forests in climate change mitigation (Somorin et al, 2012;Bele et al, 2015;Soazafy et al, 2021). Agricultural soils in Africa have been studied and found to generally have potential as a carbon sink (Vågen et al, 2005;Swanepoel et al, 2016).…”

Section: The Forestry and Sequestration Cluster (Green)mentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of climate change adaptation and mitigation research in Africa

et al. 2022

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Research on climate change has increased significantly since the 1970s. There has also been a particular focus on Africa, given its vulnerability to climate change impacts and its urbanization trends that may have massive implications for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Despite the wealth of publications on climate change in Africa, there is a lack of review studies that highlight the overall research landscape. If this status of climate research is clarified, African countries can better deal with climate change. Hence, this paper aims to improve our understanding of the status and trends of research on climate change adaptation and mitigation in Africa. Our review, straddling from 1990 to late 2021, recognizes the foundations that underpin climate change adaptation and mitigation literature. Based on keywords associated with Africa's climate change adaptation and mitigation, we undertook bibliometric research by collecting 3,316 related SCI/SSCI articles. In addition, we provided a thematic evolution over three decades, compartmentalized into four sub-periods (1990–2007; 2008–2014; 2015–2019; 2020–2021). Priority research topics and themes have been dynamic over time, with some core concepts receiving more attention (vulnerability, food, water, and energy security). Although the number of published articles exhibited a rapidly growing trend, their distribution is extremely uneven. Articles were mainly published by institutions from certain parts of the continent, with the University of Cape Town, making the highest contribution. About 72% of the existing studies focused on climate change adaptation, while climate change mitigation was less represented with 22%. The results also showed that researchers have examined not all African countries. South Africa, Ethiopia, and Ghana are hot spots, while most countries are largely neglected. Africa and African countries need to improve their future research ability on climate change mitigation. Assessing climate change risks and measures in African countries should be prioritized.

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Aboveground carbon stocks in Madagascar’s vanilla production landscape – exploring rehabilitation through agroforestry in the light of land-use history

Cited by 11 publications

References 77 publications

Stand structure as the proximate driver of endemic biodiversity and ecosystem functions in tropical mosaic landscapes

Stand structure as the proximate driver of endemic biodiversity and ecosystem functions in tropical mosaic landscapes

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

An overview of climate change adaptation and mitigation research in Africa

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