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Management practices, Productivity and Biodiversity in Coffee Agroforestry Systems in Costa Rica

Management practices, Productivity and Biodiversity in Coffee Agroforestry Systems in Costa Rica. Esteban Rossi, August 2009. Tropical Resources institute. Agroforestry -The future of global land use Sustainable agroforestry?. A working definition of sustainable forestry:

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Management practices, Productivity and Biodiversity in Coffee Agroforestry Systems in Costa Rica

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  1. Management practices, Productivity and Biodiversity in Coffee Agroforestry Systems in Costa Rica Esteban Rossi, August 2009. Tropical Resources institute

  2. Agroforestry -The future of global land useSustainable agroforestry? A working definition of sustainable forestry: “Sustainable forestry ensures that each ecosystem provides its fair share of values, neither depriving itself or other times and places of the ability to provide values” (Oliver, 2003)

  3. Different people – different values www.hsbc.com

  4. Can we manage for multiple values?Forests exist in different structures and different structures provide different values and provide habitat for different species. The challenge lies in finding the fair share of values, for the ecosystem.(Oliver, 2003) (Oliver and O’Hara 2004)

  5. Coffee agroforestry research: Catie, Costa Rica • Coffee Experimental agroforestry system • Objectives: Increase productivity and quality. • Reduce the need for chemical inputs and reduce costs. • Describe the long term dynamics of the system. • Establish the guidelines for “sustainable” coffee production in Costa Rica (Haggar, 2005).

  6. ?

  7. AF experiment -Incomplete factorial design Shade tree species: Chloroleucon euryciclum Erythrina poeppigiana Terminalia amazonia 3 levels: No shade, 1sp & 2spp. Two kinds of inputs: Chemical (conventional) Organic

  8. Methods 1. Understory herb diversity surveys: 4m x 4m subplots with 3 replicates per treatment. Understory herb species richness and abundance. 2. Tree DBH 3.Tree height. 4. Coffee yield data.

  9. Methods

  10. Results

  11. Herb diversity and coffee productivity along the management intensification gradient (2007)

  12. 14000 Chemical high Chemical medium 12000 Organic medium Organic low 10000 8000 Coffee yield Kg/Ha 6000 4000 2000 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Year Historical mean yields of the Coffee AFS grouped for management practices for 2002-2007. Organic treatments: thick lines. Chemical treatments: thin lines.

  13. Coffee productivity and biodiversity grouped by shade type

  14. Medium intensity management, a good compromise?

  15. Shade tree basal area in single-species plots

  16. Lessons and Questions… • Organic low T. amazonia collapsed (2009). • Chloroleucon eurycyclum alone and in most combinations has potential for coffee AFS. • Medium intensity management with different shade tree species is promising for Coffee AFS in Costa Rica. • It is possible to manage coffee agroforestry systems for agricultural productivity and biodiversity conservation but…

  17. …but “The Devil is in the details” Coffee Agroforestry systems have the potential to provide multiple values but the details have to be properly understood. Aberdare National Park, Kenya, 2004. Naughton-Treves et al, (2005). Steffan-Dewenter, et al, 2007. PNAS. 104:4973-4978.

  18. Associated Biodiversity

  19. Associated Biodiversity

  20. Acknowledgements Montagnini, F., De Melo E. & Elizondo, B. provided help, comments and discussion. This work was supported by the Tropical Resources Institute. Yale F&ES.

  21. Basal area in two-species plots

  22. 16.0 20 18 14.0 16 12.0 14 10.0 12 10 8.0 8 6.0 6 4.0 4 2.0 2 0.0 0 Ta Ta Ep CeEp EpTa Ep CeTa Ce CeEp Ep FS EpTa Ta Ce CeTa CeEp Ta CeEp FS Ep c-chemical medium b-organic medium d-chemical high Herb diversity and coffee productivity along the management intensification gradient(2007) Herb richness Mean coffee yield Mg /ha a-organic low Management intensity and shade type

  23. Biodiversity experiments in temperate grasslands Hypotheses, mechanisms & procedures in Biodiversity experiments using synthetic communities Loreau et al, 2001. Science.

  24. Experimental findings: Minnesota & EU Hector et al, 1999. Science. Tilman et al, 2006. Nature.

  25. Historical perspective “It has been experimentally proved that if a plot of ground be sown with several distinct genera of grasses, a greater number of plants and a greater weight of dry herbage can thus be raised”. Darwin C, The Origin of species. (Hector & Hooper, 2002) The first ecological experiment. Woburn Abbey, UK. 1817. (Vandermeer, 1989. The ecology of intercropping)

  26. Findings After extensive debate it has been shown that: • There is a positive, but complex, relation between diversity and productivity. Species composition is also important. • The combined effects of composition and location can confound the interpretation of results. • Increased traits- functional diversity groups also influences productivity. • Community age effects: early dynamics sampling effects, late dynamics niche complementarity. • Other variables (biotic & abiotic) correlate and affect productivity i.e., water, temperature, soil fertility

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