The spontaneous emergence of silvo-pastoral landscapes in the Ecuadorian Amazon: patterns and processes

Lerner, Amy M.; Rudel, Thomas K.; Schneider, Laura; McGroddy, Megan; Burbano, Diana V.; Mena, Carlos F.

doi:10.1007/s10113-014-0699-4

Cited by 38 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Lerner and colleagues did find that decreased stem density, especially small stem density, was associated with leasing out pasture lands, which could indicate a shift in management priorities (Lerner et al . ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Associated findings from this research (Lerner et al . ) suggest that a significant number of landowners in this region have allowed commercially valuable tree species to spontaneously repopulate their pastures. This circumstance suggests that small scale cattle ranchers, in this region at least, would respond enthusiastically to PES programs, like some versions of REDD+, that reward farmers for the accumulation of carbon in agriculturally active lands such as the silvopastures studied here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whether lower populations of seedlings represent reduced tolerance for shrub species or a shift from encouraging tree growth to more intensive management will require further study. Lerner and colleagues did find that decreased stem density, especially small stem density, was associated with leasing out pasture lands, which could indicate a shift in management priorities (Lerner et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While still not common, the inclusion of some trees in active pastures occurs throughout tropical America with reported densities of 3-300 stems per hectare (Guevara et al 1994, Harvey & Haber 1999, Esquivel et al 2008, Harvey et al 2011. Farmers who allow trees in their pastures cite the desire to provide shade for their animals, the potential for increased nutrient and organic matter cycling at the soil surface through litterfall, potential income from timber sales, and, for leguminous species, the input of nitrogen via fixation (Harvey & Haber 1999, Lerner et al 2014. The FAO classifies agroforestry, including silvopastoral systems, as a climate-smart agricultural practice that provides economic diversity and protection from erosion in addition to carbon uptake benefits.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carbon Stocks in Silvopastoral Systems: A Study from Four Communities in Southeastern Ecuador

et al. 2015

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Agriculture, particularly pasture, is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from tropical regions. Silvopastoral systems may increase carbon pools in pastures while maintaining productivity. Adding trees to pasture provides carbon sinks in woody biomass, and may improve degraded soils and increase the stability of soil carbon pools. In this study we quantified the biomass carbon stored in spontaneous silvopastoral systems in southeastern Ecuador. We compared the stem density, basal area, aboveground biomass, and organic carbon in the top 20 cm of soil in 100 pastures, ranging from 3 to 250 hectares, in four different communities. Aboveground live woody biomass, calculated using allometric equations and two different wood densities, varied from 10.99 to 66.1 Mg per hectare. Soil organic carbon pools ranged from 85.0 to 97.6 Mg per hectare. Stem density, basal area, and aboveground live biomass all positively correlated with pasture age. We found no relationship between pasture age or stem density and soil organic carbon pools. We measured live woody biomass carbon pools of 34-1070 Mg of carbon per farm in these silvopastoral systems. We found no effects on productivity of the herbaceous layer, suggesting that having a low density of trees in pastures could substantially increase the number of trees and the associated carbon sequestration without affecting cattle production.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carbon Stocks in Silvopastoral Systems: A Study from Four Communities in Southeastern Ecuador

et al. 2015

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“…Meanwhile, there are no large-scale private operations like the rubber and palm oil plantations of Southeast Asia. The situation in Madagascar bears some resemblance to the "smallholder stewardship" dynamic in the Ecuadorian Amazon described by [98], in which farmers with abundant land and labor are increasingly allowing certain trees to grow in their pastures. In the Malagasy highlands, though, pasture clearing is typically less labor-intensive than in Amazonia and, while farmers allowing spontaneous regeneration is certainly a part of the story, smallholders are also purposely planting trees that would not otherwise occur.…”

Section: On Pathways and Processes Of Forest Transitions And Landscapmentioning

confidence: 96%

Forest Transition in Madagascar’s Highlands: Initial Evidence and Implications

McConnell

Viña

Kull

et al. 2015

Land

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Abstract:Madagascar is renowned for the loss of the forested habitat of lemurs and other species endemic to the island. Less well known is that in the highlands, a region often described as an environmental "basket-case" of fire-degraded, eroded grasslands, woody cover has been increasing for decades. Using information derived from publically available high-and medium-resolution satellites, this study characterizes tree cover dynamics in the highlands of Madagascar over the past two decades. Our results reveal heterogeneous patterns of increased tree cover on smallholder farms and village lands, spurred by a mix of endogenous and exogenous forces. The new trees play important roles in rural livelihoods, providing renewable supplies of firewood, charcoal, timber and other products and services, as well as defensible claims to land tenure in the context of a decline in the use of hillside commons for grazing. This study documents this nascent forest transition through Land Change Science techniques, and provides a prologue to political ecological analysis by setting these changes in their social and environmental context and interrogating the costs and benefits of the shift in rural livelihood strategies. OPEN ACCESSLand 2015, 4 1156

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Species‐level tree crown maps improve predictions of tree recruit abundance in a tropical landscape

Barber

Graves

Hall

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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Predicting forest recovery at landscape scales will aid forest restoration efforts.The first step in successful forest recovery is tree recruitment. Forecasts of tree recruit abundance, derived from the landscape-scale distribution of seed sources (i.e., adult trees), could assist efforts to identify sites with high potential for natural regeneration. However, previous work revealed wide variation in the effect of seed sources on seedling abundance, from positive to no effect. We quantified the relationship between adult tree seed sources and tree recruits and predicted where natural recruitment would occur in a fragmented, tropical, agricultural landscape.We integrated species-specific tree crown maps generated from hyperspectral imagery and property ownership data with field data on the spatial distribution of tree recruits from five species. We then developed hierarchical Bayesian models to predict landscape-scale recruit abundance. Our models revealed that speciesspecific maps of tree crowns improved recruit abundance predictions. Conspecific crown area had a much stronger impact on recruitment abundance (8.00% increase in recruit abundance when conspecific tree density increases from zero to one tree; 95% credible interval (CI): 0.80% to 11.57%) than heterospecific crown area (0.03% increase with the addition of a single heterospecific tree, 95% CI: À0.60% to 0.68%). Individual property ownership was also an important predictor of recruit abundance: The best performing model had varying effects of conspecific and heterospecific crown area on recruit abundance, depending on individual property ownership. We demonstrate how novel remote sensing approaches and cadastral data can be used to generate high-resolution and landscape-level maps of tree recruit abundance. Spatial models parameterized with field, cadastral, and remote sensing data are poised to assist decision support for forest landscape restoration.

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The spontaneous emergence of silvo-pastoral landscapes in the Ecuadorian Amazon: patterns and processes

Cited by 38 publications

References 17 publications

Carbon Stocks in Silvopastoral Systems: A Study from Four Communities in Southeastern Ecuador

Carbon Stocks in Silvopastoral Systems: A Study from Four Communities in Southeastern Ecuador

Forest Transition in Madagascar’s Highlands: Initial Evidence and Implications

Species‐level tree crown maps improve predictions of tree recruit abundance in a tropical landscape

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