Agroforestry for Ecosystem Services and Environmental Benefits An Overview

Agroforestry systems are believed to provide a number of ecosystem services; however, until recently evidence in the agroforestry literature supporting these perceived benefits has been lacking. This volume brings together a series of papers from around the globe to address recent findings on the ecosystem services and environmental benefits provided by agroforestry. Specifically, this volume examines four major ecosystem services and environmental benefits: (1) carbon sequestration, (2) biodiversity conservation, (3) soil enrichment and (4) air and water quality. Past and present evidence clearly indicates that agroforestry, as part of a multifunctional working landscape, can be a viable land-use option that, in addition to alleviating poverty, offers a number of ecosystem services and environmental benefits. This realization should help promote agroforestry and its role as an integral part of a multifunctional working landscape the world over. The book should be particularly useful to students, professionals, researchers and policy makers involved in natural resource management, agroforestry, biodiversity conservation, and environmental management.

Reprinted from Agroforestry Systems, Volume 76, No. 1 (2009)

Agroforestry for ecosystem services and environmental benefits: an overview.- Contribution of trees to soil carbon sequestration under agroforestry systems in the West African Sahel.- Soil organic carbon and aggregation under poplar based agroforestry system in relation to tree age and soil type.- Carbon pools in tree biomass and the soil in improved fallows in eastern Zambia.- Soil carbon stock in relation to plant diversity of homegardens in Kerala, India.- Crop residue effect on crop performance, soil N2O and CO2 emissions in alley cropping systems in subtropical China.- Soil characteristics below Erythrina poeppigiana in organic and conventional Costa Rican coffee plantations.- Effects of shade on arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization and growth of crops and tree seedlings in Central India.- Cooperative management and its effects on shade tree diversity, soil properties and ecosystem services of coffee plantations in western El Salvador.- Soil and litter fauna of cacao agroforestry systems in Bahia, Brazil.- Effects of shade and bird exclusion on arthropods and leaf damage on coffee farms in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains.- Nectar volume and floral entomofauna as a tool for the implementation of sustainable apicultural management plans in Quillaja saponaria Mol..- Spatiotemporal density patterns of the pest predator Rhynchium haemorrhoidale (F.) along a land-use gradient in cacao agroforestry systems.- Ethnobotanical knowledge of Philippine lowland farmers and its application in agroforestry.- Factors affecting adoption of hedgerows and other biodiversity-enhancing features on farms in California, USA.- Willingness of Iowa agricultural landowners to allow fee hunting associated with in-field shelterbelts.- An evaluation of farmers’ experiences planting native trees inrural Panama: implications for reforestation with native species in agricultural landscapes.- Financial feasibility of using shelterbelts for swine odor mitigation.- Coarse root growth of Veronese poplar trees varies with position on an erodible slope in New Zealand.