Abstract
Declining biodiversity (BD) is aecting food security, agricultural sustainability,and environmental quality. Agroforestry (AF) is recognized as a possible partial solution forBD conservation and improvement. This manuscript uses published peer-reviewed manuscripts,reviews, meta-analysis, and federal and state agency documents to evaluate relationships betweenAF and BD and how AF can be used to conserve BD. The review revealed that floral, faunal, and soilmicrobial diversity were significantly greater in AF as compared to monocropping, adjacent croplands, and within crop alleys and some forests. Among the soil organisms, arbuscular mycorrhizaefungi (AMF), bacteria, and enzyme activities were significantly greater in AF than crop and livestockpractices. Agroforestry also creates spatially concentrated high-density BD near trees due to favorablesoil-plant-water-microclimate conditions. The greater BD was attributed to heterogeneous vegetation,organic carbon, microclimate, soil conditions, and spatial distribution of trees. Dierences in BDbetween AF and other management types diminished with time. Evenly distributed leaves, litter,roots, dead/live biological material, and microclimate improve soil and microclimate in adjacentcrop and pasture areas as the system matures. Results of the study prove that integration of AFcan improve BD in agricultural lands. Selection of site suitable tree/shrub/grass-crop combinationscan be used to help address soil nutrient deficiencies or environmental conditions. Future studieswith standardized management protocols may be needed for all regions to further strengthen thesefindings and to develop AF establishment criteria for BD conservation and agricultural sustainability.
Highlights
Despite numerous benefits of biodiversity (BD), the global BD is changing at an unprecedented and alarming rate [1,2]
Agricultural intensification and deforestation are major contributors for loss of BD, ecosystem functions, and economies depend on natural resources [7,8]
Agroforestry has been identified as a tool to preserve rich species diversity around the world [24,25,26] because AF plays five major roles in BD conservation [2]. These include: (1) agroforestry provides habitat for species that can tolerate a certain level of disturbance; (2) agroforestry helps preserve germplasm of sensitive species; (3) agroforestry helps reduce the rates of conversion of natural habitat by providing a more productive, sustainable alternative to traditional agricultural systems that may involve clearing natural habitats; (4) agroforestry provides connectivity by creating corridors between habitat remnants which may support the integrity of these remnants and the conservation of area-sensitive floral and faunal species; and (5) agroforestry helps conserve biological diversity by providing other ecosystem services such as erosion control and water recharge, thereby preventing the degradation and loss of surrounding habitat
Summary
Despite numerous benefits of biodiversity (BD), the global BD is changing at an unprecedented and alarming rate [1,2]. Agroforestry has been identified as a tool to preserve rich species diversity around the world [24,25,26] because AF plays five major roles in BD conservation [2] These include: (1) agroforestry provides habitat for species that can tolerate a certain level of disturbance; (2) agroforestry helps preserve germplasm of sensitive species; (3) agroforestry helps reduce the rates of conversion of natural habitat by providing a more productive, sustainable alternative to traditional agricultural systems that may involve clearing natural habitats; (4) agroforestry provides connectivity by creating corridors between habitat remnants which may support the integrity of these remnants and the conservation of area-sensitive floral and faunal species; and (5) agroforestry helps conserve biological diversity by providing other ecosystem services such as erosion control and water recharge, thereby preventing the degradation and loss of surrounding habitat. This review addresses AF’s potential for reversing the negative impacts of domesticating crops and adoption of monoculture systems, and the role of AF with the hypothesis that AF practices increase the species variability and species richness help conserve the global BD and possibly contributing to enhance ecosystem services
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