Integrating local and landscape management promotes biodiversity, multifunctionality and yields in tropical agroforests
Abstract
Reconciling food production and biodiversity conservation requires socio-ecologically viable agroecosystems. To meet this goal, tropical agroforestry must balance yield-biodiversity trade-offs through local and landscape-level management. By integrating assessments of multi-taxa diversity, biocontrol, pollination, crop pests, soil fertility, microclimate, and yield in Amazonian cacao agroforests, we identified ecological-economic synergies. Yield gains were not associated with species loss. Instead, agroforests with high spatial and vertical shade-tree heterogeneity embedded in landscapes combining 30–35% forest cover and 40–45% of other arboreal habitats (e.g., orchards/agroforests) achieved the highest biodiversity and yields. In these landscapes, flying-vertebrate-mediated arthropod suppression doubled cacao yields. Increasing agroforest shade-tree cover from ≈15% to ≈80% yielded a four-fold rise in cacao fruit-set, tripled soil potassium and enhanced thermal buffering. But light limitation, rather than pest pressure, reduced harvestable yields above 30% shade-tree cover. Our findings demonstrate that combined agroforest-level and landscape-scale management can align biodiversity conservation and economic returns in tropical landscapes.
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BibTeX
@article{aycartlazo2026integrating,
title = {{Integrating local and landscape management promotes biodiversity, multifunctionality and yields in tropical agroforests}},
author = {Pablo Aycart-Lazo and Blanca Ivañez-Ballesteros and Abed Alvino-Rosas and Daniel Ochterbeck and Melvin Opolka and Oscar Cabezas Huayllas and Stefan Dullinger and Evert Thomas and Teja Tscharntke and Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter and Carolina Ocampo-Ariza and Bea Maas},
journal = {Communications Earth \& Environment},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s43247-026-04141-3},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-04141-3},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Integrating local and landscape management promotes biodiversity, multifunctionality and yields in tropical agroforests
AU - Pablo Aycart-Lazo
AU - Blanca Ivañez-Ballesteros
AU - Abed Alvino-Rosas
AU - Daniel Ochterbeck
AU - Melvin Opolka
AU - Oscar Cabezas Huayllas
AU - Stefan Dullinger
AU - Evert Thomas
AU - Teja Tscharntke
AU - Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
AU - Carolina Ocampo-Ariza
AU - Bea Maas
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Communications Earth & Environment
DO - 10.1038/s43247-026-04141-3
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-04141-3
AB - Reconciling food production and biodiversity conservation requires socio-ecologically viable agroecosystems. To meet this goal, tropical agroforestry must balance yield-biodiversity trade-offs through local and landscape-level management. By integrating assessments of multi-taxa diversity, biocontrol, pollination, crop pests, soil fertility, microclimate, and yield in Amazonian cacao agroforests, we identified ecological-economic synergies. Yield gains were not associated with species loss. Instead, agroforests with high spatial and vertical shade-tree heterogeneity embedded in landscapes combining 30–35% forest cover and 40–45% of other arboreal habitats (e.g., orchards/agroforests) achieved the highest biodiversity and yields. In these landscapes, flying-vertebrate-mediated arthropod suppression doubled cacao yields. Increasing agroforest shade-tree cover from ≈15% to ≈80% yielded a four-fold rise in cacao fruit-set, tripled soil potassium and enhanced thermal buffering. But light limitation, rather than pest pressure, reduced harvestable yields above 30% shade-tree cover. Our findings demonstrate that combined agroforest-level and landscape-scale management can align biodiversity conservation and economic returns in tropical landscapes.
SN - 2662-4435
ER -