Скачать или смотреть Decreasing predation rates and shifting predator compositions in Madagascar’s vanilla landscapes

The research project Diversity Turn in Land Use Science at the University of Goettingen investigated how predation rates and predator communities change along a land-use gradient using dummy caterpillars made of plasticine. The land-use gradient included unburned old-growth and forest fragments, herbaceous and woody fallows after shifting cultivation with fire usage, as well as rice paddies. The studied vanilla agroforests were either forest-derived or fallow-derived. The study found that predation is negatively affected by land-use. The research team measured an overall decrease of predation pressure from forested to open habitat. Predation rates increased with increasing vegetation density and increasing stem density. Also, predation rates increased with increasing landscape-scale forest cover. The research team found that land-use history was important. They found higher predation rates in unburned land-use types than in formerly burned or rice paddy plots. In terms of predator composition, arthropods, especially ants, represented the main predators across all land-use types. Predator compositions differed significantly across land-use types: old-growth forest and forest fragment harboured similar compositions, different to all other land-use types. Their conclusion is: Maintaining or restoring tree- and understory-rich vanilla agroforestry represents a viable tool in landscape conservation programmes as it has the potential to contribute to the conservation of predation as an important ecosystem function in both forest- and fallow-derived vanilla agroforests. However, establishment of tree-rich agroforests on former fallow land is favourable for conservation ecosystem functioning, further forest transformation should be avoided.
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