Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment最新文献

{"title":"Nutrient amendment promotes vegetation restoration and improves ecosystem carbon uptake capacity in a degraded grassland","authors":"Yaxiang Lü ,&nbsp;Binger An ,&nbsp;Qingmin Pan ,&nbsp;Wei Liu ,&nbsp;Jiamei Sun ,&nbsp;Jing Wang ,&nbsp;Zhiyan Qi ,&nbsp;Chao Li ,&nbsp;Shande Dou ,&nbsp;Xingguo Han","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109666","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109666","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Approximately 49 % of global grasslands are degraded due to overgrazing and other forms of mismanagement, resulting in great reduction in vegetation productivity and carbon uptake capacity. Degradation-induced losses of soil nutrients, particularly nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), severely hinder the restoration of degraded grasslands in China. However, whether and how amendments of N and/or P promote vegetation recovery and improve carbon uptake capacity in degraded grasslands remain poorly understood. Here we present the results of a nutrient amendment experiment conducted in a degraded grassland in Inner Mongolia, where we evaluated the individual and joint effects of N and P amendments. We found that N amendment increased the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP), belowground net primary productivity (BNPP), gross ecosystem carbon production (GEP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) by 66.9 %, 61.6 %, 27.3 %, 18.8 %, and 32.3 %, respectively, while NP co-amendment stimulated these variables by 104.7 %, 171.4 %, 48.7 %, 36.7 % and 56.8 %, respectively. In contrast, P amendment alone had little effect on these variables except for BNPP. We observed a distinct shift in the dominance of plant species, with short-stature, unproductive grasses being replaced by the originally-dominant, tall-stature, productive grasses. This shift significantly contributed to the improvement of ecosystem carbon uptake capacity. Moreover, we identified a synergistic interaction between N and P on GEP, ER, and NEE. Our results suggest that effective restoration strategies, such as the proper amendment of limiting nutrients, can help restore the large-scale, degraded grasslands and enhance their carbon uptake capacity in China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"388 ","pages":"Article 109666"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comprehensive assessment of soil health in representative kiwifruit orchards in southwest China","authors":"Jiangzhou Zhang ,&nbsp;Rumeng Han ,&nbsp;Shanghui Duan ,&nbsp;Peter Christie ,&nbsp;Junling Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109656","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109656","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Improving soil health is important for sustainable agriculture. However, inappropriate soil management threatens soil quality, potentially reducing crop yield and compromising other soil functions. Assessment of soil health, identification and amelioration of the soil constraining factors to improve crop yields are important for the long-term benefits. However, few studies on soil health in perennial cash crops have been conducted. In this study, intensive soil sampling was conducted at soil depths of 0–30, 30–60 and 60–90 cm in kiwifruit orchards with high yield (HY; average 25.9 t ha⁻¹) and low yield (LY; average 7.0 t ha⁻¹) in adjoining field sites to assess soil health and multifunctionality, and identify the major factors limiting yields. Additionally, a field experiment was conducted to test the effect of localized application of sand on amelioration of soil physical parameters for improving yield. Soil physical properties, but not chemical or biological properties, differed between HY and LY orchards. Soil porosity and aeration porosity at 0–30 cm deep in HY orchards were higher than in LY orchards. In contrast, soil bulk density and surface hardness had the opposite trends. Soil health and multifunctionality indices were the highest at 0–30 cm deep, but did not differ significantly between HY and LY orchards regardless of soil depth. Soil physical health indicator at 0–30 and 30–60 cm deep was higher (24 % and 32 %, respectively) in HY orchards than in LY orchards. The structural equation model indicated that soil surface hardness, bulk density and soil aeration porosity were major physical factors constraining kiwifruit yield. Soil porosity, root length density and kiwifruit yield were increased in the localized sand application treatment. These results indicate that soil health testing is a prerequisite prior to the establishment of orchards. The remediation of soil physical traits is important for optimizing kiwifruit yield in soils with high clay contents or compacted soil with high bulk density.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"388 ","pages":"Article 109656"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The competitive effects of crop straw return and nitrogen fertilization on soil acidification","authors":"Jia Cheng ,&nbsp;Cheng-Ze Yang ,&nbsp;Le Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhuo-Jun Lin ,&nbsp;Yash Pal Dang ,&nbsp;Xin Zhao ,&nbsp;Hai-Lin Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109638","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109638","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil acidification has become an increasingly severe issue in China, with the role of straw return practices in mitigating this challenge remaining widely debated. This study examines the combined effects of straw return and nitrogen (N) fertilization on soil pH, highlighting their competing influences on acidification. A meta-analysis of 44 field trials across China revealed that N fertilization alone reduced soil pH by an average of 3.72 %. However, straw return mitigated this pH decline, increasing soil pH by 0.02 and 0.10 units in acidic and neutral soils, respectively. Compared to N-only treatment, the interaction between N and straw return produced varying effects. High N inputs (&gt;100 kg/ha) with low straw return further decreased soil pH, while high straw return with low N inputs moderately alleviated acidification. This phenomenon is attributed to the ability of straw return to counteract H⁺ ion production through several mechanisms such as replenishing cations removed during crop harvest, increasing soil organic carbon (SOC), and improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by optimizing the soil carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio. These findings suggest that integrating balanced straw return practices with N fertilization can effectively mitigate acidification caused by N inputs. These strategies offer significant potential for promoting sustainable agricultural systems in China and beyond.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"388 ","pages":"Article 109638"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143734619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exogenous nitrogen enhances aboveground plant phosphorus accumulation through soil moisture and organic carbon in semi-arid grazed wetlands","authors":"Mingye Zhang ,&nbsp;Shuchen Liu ,&nbsp;Yu An ,&nbsp;Dongjie Zhang ,&nbsp;Jianghao Tan ,&nbsp;Le Wang ,&nbsp;Yifan Li ,&nbsp;Ming Jiang ,&nbsp;Haitao Wu ,&nbsp;Shouzheng Tong","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109635","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109635","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agricultural utilization of wetlands has witnessed a continuous upward trend, with the semi-arid regions being especially prominent in this regard. These wetlands under human management have consequently emerged as crucial constituents within the agricultural ecosystem. Grazing is considered a predominant land use practice profoundly impacting nutrient cycling and redistribution in semi-arid wetlands, and exogenous nitrogen (N) from atmospheric deposition and agricultural water discharge simultaneously participated these processes. Nevertheless, the impacts of exogenous N input and grazing on phosphorus (P) distribution patterns remain nebulous, especially in the semi-arid Songnen Plain of China, where P limitation prevails. In order to address this knowledge gap, the study conducted a field experiment with four grazing intensities (natural, light, medium, and heavy) and two N addition levels (with and without) in semi-arid wetlands. The results show that grazing and N addition together affect P content in soil and plant organs. Grazing intensity generally reduces soil P, regardless of N addition, while N addition promotes soil P accumulation in natural wetlands. P content in plant organs increases with grazing intensity. Soil organic carbon (SOC), soil water content (SWC), electrical conductivity, and soil N are positively correlated with soil P but negatively correlated with P in stems and leaves. RDA shows that SWC and SOC are key factors influencing P distribution in soil and plant organs. Plant growth strategies create a positive correlation between root and soil P contents, and a negative correlation between P in stems, leaves, and soil. SEM further shows that grazing significantly affects P levels in soil and plant organs, while N addition boosts P uptake in roots and its transfer to aboveground organs, mediated by SWC and SOC. These findings show that exogenous N input alters P acquisition strategies and distribution in plant organs and soil in grazed wetlands of semi-arid regions. This study enhances understanding of P cycling and offers practical guidelines for sustainable wetland management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"388 ","pages":"Article 109635"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143725525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Complementary effects of encroachment and grazing intensity for soil quality in a mountain grassland","authors":"E.A.N. Marks ,&nbsp;J.M. Barbosa ,&nbsp;J. Mataix-Solera ,&nbsp;F. García-Orenes ,&nbsp;M. Rincon-Madroñero ,&nbsp;V. Arcenegui ,&nbsp;S. Albolafio ,&nbsp;A. Contreras ,&nbsp;J.A. Sánchez-Zapata","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109652","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109652","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Grasslands are globally significant ecosystems held in an ecological balance by herbivory, with a natural tendency towards shrub encroachment, creating a tension between two alternative successional trajectories. The influence of grazing pressure on soil properties is not yet accurately predicted across ecosystems, nor its interaction with encroachment, with quite variable effects found. We studied the combined effect of grazing and encroachment on soil ecophysiological processes by collecting soil samples from paired locations with and without shrub presence across a managed high-altitude pastureland of 14,000 ha. By tracking 26 sheep herds with GPS collars over multiple years, we created a spatially explicit map of grazing intensity over the landscape, permitting quantification of grazing impacts on soil properties on a continuous scale. Grazing changed soil nutrient status, increasing total soil nitrogen (TN) by up to 0.77 % over the gradient, and available phosphorus (P_avail) by up to 12 times. Grazing increased soil organic carbon (SOC) content by up to 4.5 % across the gradient, and encroachment increased SOC by 1.2 %. SOC increases under these two conditions likely represent two co-occurring paths soil carbon accumulation since particulate organic carbon (POC) was increased by 44 % under shrubs, while the effect of grazing was unclear. Grazing and encroachment impacts on the soil microbial community diverged, since microbial biomass carbon (C_mic) increased by up to 86 % with grazing intensity with a simultaneous decrease in microbial basal respiration and metabolic quotient (<em>q</em>CO₂), however neither were affected by encroachment. Overall, encroachment and grazing were seen to be complementary for soil protection and provision of ecosystem services, though their effects on certain parameters were contrasting. This knowledge may be useful for adaptive management in high nature value agroecological landscapes, and can improve large-scale projections of SOC stocks and other soil properties incorporating varying degrees of grazing intensity and the influence of encroachment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"388 ","pages":"Article 109652"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143715210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conversion of arable land to perennial bioenergy crops increases soil organic carbon stocks on the long term","authors":"Fabien Ferchaud ,&nbsp;Sylvain Marsac ,&nbsp;Bruno Mary","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109637","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109637","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Perennial C4 bioenergy crops can combine high productivity and low input requirements. However, their impact on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term impact of converting arable land to perennial bioenergy crops on SOC stocks for two crop species (miscanthus and switchgrass) and several crop management practices (nitrogen fertilization, harvest date and irrigation). We analyzed two long-term experiments located in northern and southern France. Both sites were sampled initially and after 12 or 13 years. SOC stocks were calculated at equivalent soil mass in each site and δ¹³C measurements were used to calculate changes in “new” and “old” SOC stocks. SOC stocks in the old ploughed layer increased significantly in both sites but most of the SOC storage occurred in the topsoil layer (∼0–5 cm). SOC storage rate was fairly similar between miscanthus and switchgrass but was much greater in the southern site than in the northern site (0.96 <em>vs</em> 0.26 t C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). This larger storage rate was mainly explained by higher carbon inputs, as suggested by the higher accumulation rate of new SOC (1.41 <em>vs</em> 0.86 t C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). No significant effect of the management practices on the SOC change rate could be detected, but early harvest systematically reduced SOC storage compared to late harvest (by 33 % for miscanthus and 12 % for switchgrass). Higher carbon inputs due to late harvest or irrigated conditions were partly compensated by a higher old SOC decrease.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"388 ","pages":"Article 109637"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143715276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coupling soil bacterial and fungal community traits to multifunctionality in grassland ecosystem","authors":"Chenxiao Ding ,&nbsp;Yaowei Liu ,&nbsp;Marcela Hernández ,&nbsp;Han Sun ,&nbsp;Shuo Jiao ,&nbsp;Hong Pan ,&nbsp;Tida Ge ,&nbsp;Kankan Zhao ,&nbsp;Qichun Zhang ,&nbsp;Jianming Xu ,&nbsp;Yong Li","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109648","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109648","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding how bacterial and fungal community traits affect ecosystem functions, and thus provide ecosystem services, is becoming increasingly necessary. However, the relationship between microbial community traits and ecosystem multifunctionality, as well as the mechanisms underlying diversity and multifunctionality, remains a topic of concern. Here, we explored the bacterial and fungal communities and linked them with ecosystem multifunctionality (including enzymatic activity and nutrient pool) in continuous grassland ecosystems (desert, typical and meadow). We found a significant and positive correlation between abundance, diversity, network properties of bacteria and fungi and ecosystem multifunctionality. Bacterial and fungal diversities were the most important factor determining the multifunctionality in grassland ecosystems, whereas their abundance becomes more crucial than diversity in desert grasslands, where the abundances were as low as 1.11 × 10⁷ and 3.67 × 10⁶ copies g⁻¹ soil for bacteria and fungi, respectively. The relative contributions of bacteria and fungi on multifunctionality changed along with grassland types, with the relative contributions of fungi increasing from desert (49.5 %) to typical (50 %), and to the meadow grasslands (67.8 %). Moreover, bacterial and fungal assembly processes were mainly determined by stochastic processes, especially in meadow grasslands, and the microbial assembly processes were significantly positively correlated with diversity-multifunctionality relationship (the correlation coefficients between α diversity and multifunctionality relationships). Taken together, our results reveal the importance of bacterial and fungal abundance and diversity in maintaining soil multifunctionality, and provide strong support for the relationship between assembly process and diversity-multifunctionality in grassland ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"388 ","pages":"Article 109648"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143715211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Invasive plant serves as an important complementary food resource for diverse pollinators in anthropogenic environments at the end of the flowering season","authors":"Petr Heneberg ,&nbsp;Petr Bogusch ,&nbsp;Jakub Černý ,&nbsp;Petr Žáček ,&nbsp;Petr Karlík","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109627","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109627","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Senecio inaequidens</em> is one of Europe’s fastest plant invaders, which forms large flowering stands in various anthropogenic habitats. This plant is nectar- and pollen-rich and flowers from late May until the beginning of winter, thus providing food sources as a competitive advantage for pollinators that adapt to its presence. However, it also poses a threat in the form of the production of pyrrolizidine alkaloids that are contained in the pollen and nectar. We asked the following questions: 1) Is the model invasive species used as a food resource for pollinators? 2) How do the spatio-temporal patterns of invasive species’ integration into plant-pollinator communities affect this system? 3) Do the floral toxins of the invasive model species cause a negative impact on the fitness of pollinators? We provide the first direct evidence that invasive <em>Senecio inaequidens</em> and native <em>Jacobaea vulgaris</em> serve as complementary food resources for a broad spectrum of flower visitors, including hoverflies, honey bees, bumblebees, and solitary bees. Their abundance and species richness are particularly high if the surrounding anthropogenic landscape provides sufficient nesting resources and other complementary food sources. Other plant species outcompete the two <em>Senecioneae</em> spp. during their flowering period. The pollinators switched to and from <em>Senecioneae</em> spp., corresponding to the beginnings or ends of flowering periods of other abundantly present food resources. Feeding larvae of the polylectic <em>Osmia</em> species with pollen enriched with extracts from <em>Senecioneae</em> spp. inflorescences led to significant decreases in metamorphosis success rates but did not affect body dimensions or symmetry. Therefore, the invasive autumn-flowering plant <em>Senecio inaequidens</em> is an important complementary food resource for diverse pollinators in anthropogenic environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"387 ","pages":"Article 109627"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143704353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Set-aside of grassland field margins enhances buckwheat pollination services in small-holder agricultural landscapes","authors":"Yuta Nagano ,&nbsp;Tomoyuki Yokoi ,&nbsp;Hisatomo Taki ,&nbsp;Tadashi Miyashita","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109628","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109628","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Smallholder agricultural landscapes, which are commonly found in Asian countries, harbor large areas of semi-natural grasslands because of the high density of field margins, which could potentially function as habitats for diverse pollinators. However, its function has not been fully realized owing to intense mowing management in recent years. This study clarified the ecological process by which the set-aside practice in field-margin grasslands enhances buckwheat pollination services. We conducted a field experiment over three years in Japan and investigated insect visitation and seed sets of buckwheat in fields with conventionally mowed and set-aside margins. Insects visiting buckwheat fields were more abundant in fields with set-aside field margins, and seed sets also increased in fields with set-aside margins because of increased insects. This tendency was consistently observed across all years and seasons. Moreover, insects with a broader utilization of wildflowers contributed more to the seed sets. The abundance responses to set-aside practices differed among insect groups. Non-bee insects increased with the set-aside practice, whereas bees did not. Seed sets increased with an increasing abundance of wild bees, hoverflies, and flower chafers, but not with honeybees. Our results indicate a causal link between set-aside grassland field margins and an increase in buckwheat pollination services. In particular, non-bee insects primarily drive the positive effects of set-aside practices on buckwheat pollination. We propose that exploring appropriate management of existing field margins, rather than setting grasslands inside the fields, which can boost pollinators and crop pollination services, is promising in smallholder agricultural landscapes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"387 ","pages":"Article 109628"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143704355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Traditional and industrial approaches to oil palm cultivation alter the biodiversity of ground-dwelling arthropods in Liberia (West Africa)","authors":"Jonathan H. Timperley ,&nbsp;Brogan L. Pett ,&nbsp;Bility Geninyan ,&nbsp;Ari Saputra ,&nbsp;Abraham Vincent ,&nbsp;Romeo Weah ,&nbsp;Benedictus Freeman ,&nbsp;Marshall Guahn ,&nbsp;Peter M. Hadfield ,&nbsp;Morris T. Jah ,&nbsp;Tiecanna Jones ,&nbsp;Rudy H. Widodo ,&nbsp;Cicely A.M. Marshall ,&nbsp;Edgar C. Turner ,&nbsp;Michael D. Pashkevich","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109626","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109626","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Oil palm cultivation is vital to global food security and economically important to farmers. However, the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations has caused large-scale deforestation in the tropics and, consequently, biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystem functioning. Oil palm is primarily cultivated in Southeast Asia, where the ecological impacts of production have been studied extensively. It is also grown in West Africa, using traditional and industrial methods of cultivation. However, in comparison to Southeast Asia, relatively little research on the impacts of oil palm cultivation in West Africa has occurred. Working in the framework of the Sustainable Oil Palm in West Africa (SOPWA) Project (Sinoe County, Liberia), we investigated differences in the biodiversity of ground-dwelling arthropods across rainforest (the regional natural habitat) and oil palm systems cultivated under traditional (called “country palm”) and industrial management. We sampled arthropods with pitfall traps (160 retrieved) across 54 monitoring plots in rainforest, country palm, and industrial oil palm. We found no differences in total arthropod abundance across systems, but we did find changes in arthropod order-level community composition, driven by differences in the relative abundance of Araneae, Collembola, Dermaptera, and Diptera. We conducted focused morphospecies-level analyses on spiders, owing to their key roles as predators within tropical agricultural systems, and to determine if our order-level findings held true at increased taxonomic resolution. Our spider analyses indicated that country palm supported the greatest number of spider individuals and species, and that all systems supported distinct spider assemblages. Our findings have implications for both arthropod conservation and oil palm productivity, owing to the important ecosystem functions (e.g., pest control) that many arthropods provide. Future research should investigate whether changes in on-farm management practices influence arthropod communities – and the ecosystem functions they support – in West Africa.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"387 ","pages":"Article 109626"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143704384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}