{"title":"Combining planting trees and natural regeneration promotes long-term structural complexity in oil palm landscapes","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122182","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Vegetation structural complexity has been identified as a vital factor for forest ecosystem function, stability, and resilience. However, agricultural land with much reduced structural complexity has largely replaced natural forests in the tropics. Therefore, restoring structural complexity in large-scale plantation monocultures by introducing agroforestry systems may counteract the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, we still have limited knowledge of how the structural complexity of agroforests develops under different restoration treatments. We established a large-scale biodiversity enrichment experiment in a conventional monoculture oil palm plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. In this experiment, agroforests were implemented by planting clusters of native trees (“tree islands”) within the oil palm plantation, systematically varying initially planted tree richness ranging from 0–6 (0 corresponding to natural regeneration only) and plot area (25–1600 m<sup>2</sup>). We tested the effect of the experimental treatments on nine years of the development of local structural complexity using a stand structural complexity index (SSCI) derived from terrestrial laser scanning. We found that tree planting and natural regeneration treatments promoted structural complexity by creating denser and more complex vegetation structures. Plots with a tree planting treatment tended to show greater structural complexity than plots with natural regeneration only. However, during the study period, oil palms still dominated heights, and the temporal change in structural complexity among plots with or without a tree planting treatment did not differ. As for plot area, our results indicate that structural complexity looking from the center of plots did not necessarily depend on the area during the study period, and even small tree islands can increase local structural complexity in a monoculture oil palm plantation. Initially planted tree richness did not significantly affect the development of structural complexity. Nine years after establishment, not planted trees but regenerated woody plants strongly positively affected vegetation density and structural complexity. Our findings highlight that sustaining vegetation density below oil palm canopies is a key strategy to increase the structural complexity of oil palm landscapes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112724004948/pdfft?md5=5d0bc1ef6e6d9cdecf8837ade52249cb&pid=1-s2.0-S0378112724004948-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Forest Ecology and Management","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112724004948","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"FORESTRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Vegetation structural complexity has been identified as a vital factor for forest ecosystem function, stability, and resilience. However, agricultural land with much reduced structural complexity has largely replaced natural forests in the tropics. Therefore, restoring structural complexity in large-scale plantation monocultures by introducing agroforestry systems may counteract the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, we still have limited knowledge of how the structural complexity of agroforests develops under different restoration treatments. We established a large-scale biodiversity enrichment experiment in a conventional monoculture oil palm plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. In this experiment, agroforests were implemented by planting clusters of native trees (“tree islands”) within the oil palm plantation, systematically varying initially planted tree richness ranging from 0–6 (0 corresponding to natural regeneration only) and plot area (25–1600 m2). We tested the effect of the experimental treatments on nine years of the development of local structural complexity using a stand structural complexity index (SSCI) derived from terrestrial laser scanning. We found that tree planting and natural regeneration treatments promoted structural complexity by creating denser and more complex vegetation structures. Plots with a tree planting treatment tended to show greater structural complexity than plots with natural regeneration only. However, during the study period, oil palms still dominated heights, and the temporal change in structural complexity among plots with or without a tree planting treatment did not differ. As for plot area, our results indicate that structural complexity looking from the center of plots did not necessarily depend on the area during the study period, and even small tree islands can increase local structural complexity in a monoculture oil palm plantation. Initially planted tree richness did not significantly affect the development of structural complexity. Nine years after establishment, not planted trees but regenerated woody plants strongly positively affected vegetation density and structural complexity. Our findings highlight that sustaining vegetation density below oil palm canopies is a key strategy to increase the structural complexity of oil palm landscapes.
期刊介绍:
Forest Ecology and Management publishes scientific articles linking forest ecology with forest management, focusing on the application of biological, ecological and social knowledge to the management and conservation of plantations and natural forests. The scope of the journal includes all forest ecosystems of the world.
A peer-review process ensures the quality and international interest of the manuscripts accepted for publication. The journal encourages communication between scientists in disparate fields who share a common interest in ecology and forest management, bridging the gap between research workers and forest managers.
We encourage submission of papers that will have the strongest interest and value to the Journal''s international readership. Some key features of papers with strong interest include:
1. Clear connections between the ecology and management of forests;
2. Novel ideas or approaches to important challenges in forest ecology and management;
3. Studies that address a population of interest beyond the scale of single research sites, Three key points in the design of forest experiments, Forest Ecology and Management 255 (2008) 2022-2023);
4. Review Articles on timely, important topics. Authors are welcome to contact one of the editors to discuss the suitability of a potential review manuscript.
The Journal encourages proposals for special issues examining important areas of forest ecology and management. Potential guest editors should contact any of the Editors to begin discussions about topics, potential papers, and other details.