Birds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats

Abstract Coffee is a major tropical commodity crop that can provide supplementary habitat for native wildlife. In Asia, coffee production is an increasingly important driver of landscape transformation and shifts between different coffee species is a major dimension of agroforestry trends. Yet few s...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Charlotte H. Chang, Krithi K. Karanth, Paul Robbins
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2018
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5a5019aabf71454a92b00680dc614076
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:5a5019aabf71454a92b00680dc614076
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5a5019aabf71454a92b00680dc6140762021-12-02T15:08:37ZBirds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats10.1038/s41598-018-21401-12045-2322https://doaj.org/article/5a5019aabf71454a92b00680dc6140762018-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21401-1https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Coffee is a major tropical commodity crop that can provide supplementary habitat for native wildlife. In Asia, coffee production is an increasingly important driver of landscape transformation and shifts between different coffee species is a major dimension of agroforestry trends. Yet few studies have compared the ecological impacts of conversion between different coffee species. We evaluated whether or not the two species of coffee grown globally—Coffea arabica and C. canephora (denoted “robusta”)—had equivalent avian conservation value in the Western Ghats, India, where robusta production has become increasingly dominant. We found that habitat specialist and functional guild diversity was higher in arabica, and that arabica was more profitable. However, robusta farms generally supported the same or slightly higher abundances of habitat specialists and functional guilds, largely due to dense canopy and landscape-level forest cover. Farming practices, chiefly pesticide use, may affect the suitability of coffee agroforests as habitat for avian specialists, and at present, robusta farmers tended to use less pesticide. Given future projections for arabica to robusta conversion in tropical Asia, our study indicates that certification efforts should prioritize maintaining native canopy shade trees and forest cover to ensure that coffee landscapes can continue providing biodiversity benefits.Charlotte H. ChangKrithi K. KaranthPaul RobbinsNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Charlotte H. Chang Krithi K. Karanth Paul Robbins Birds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats
description	Abstract Coffee is a major tropical commodity crop that can provide supplementary habitat for native wildlife. In Asia, coffee production is an increasingly important driver of landscape transformation and shifts between different coffee species is a major dimension of agroforestry trends. Yet few studies have compared the ecological impacts of conversion between different coffee species. We evaluated whether or not the two species of coffee grown globally—Coffea arabica and C. canephora (denoted “robusta”)—had equivalent avian conservation value in the Western Ghats, India, where robusta production has become increasingly dominant. We found that habitat specialist and functional guild diversity was higher in arabica, and that arabica was more profitable. However, robusta farms generally supported the same or slightly higher abundances of habitat specialists and functional guilds, largely due to dense canopy and landscape-level forest cover. Farming practices, chiefly pesticide use, may affect the suitability of coffee agroforests as habitat for avian specialists, and at present, robusta farmers tended to use less pesticide. Given future projections for arabica to robusta conversion in tropical Asia, our study indicates that certification efforts should prioritize maintaining native canopy shade trees and forest cover to ensure that coffee landscapes can continue providing biodiversity benefits.
format	article
author	Charlotte H. Chang Krithi K. Karanth Paul Robbins
author_facet	Charlotte H. Chang Krithi K. Karanth Paul Robbins
author_sort	Charlotte H. Chang
title	Birds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats
title_short	Birds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats
title_full	Birds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats
title_fullStr	Birds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats
title_full_unstemmed	Birds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats
title_sort	birds and beans: comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in india’s western ghats
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/5a5019aabf71454a92b00680dc614076
work_keys_str_mv	AT charlottehchang birdsandbeanscomparingavianrichnessandendemisminarabicaandrobustaagroforestsinindiaswesternghats AT krithikkaranth birdsandbeanscomparingavianrichnessandendemisminarabicaandrobustaagroforestsinindiaswesternghats AT paulrobbins birdsandbeanscomparingavianrichnessandendemisminarabicaandrobustaagroforestsinindiaswesternghats
_version_	1718388060736978944

Birds and beans: Comparing avian richness and endemism in arabica and robusta agroforests in India’s Western Ghats

Ejemplares similares