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Biosocial and bionumerical diversity of variously sized home gardens in Tabasco, Mexico

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Abstract

The evaluation of species and structural diversity of home gardens strongly depends on the methods used. We distinguish the biosocial and the bionumerical method. The first is widely used and takes data of the whole population of trees of home gardens to calculate diversity. The bionumerical method calculates diversity from data of a fixed number of randomly selected trees. We apply both methods to analyze if structural and species diversity varies with home garden size, a theme of considerable conservation interest, and compare results. We inventoried the tree component of a sample of 61 home gardens from rural areas in Tabasco, Mexico, which we assigned to three size categories: small (≤1,000 m2), medium sized (>1,000 and ≤2,000 m2), and large home gardens (>2,000 m2). Average species richness and Shannon diversity indices determined by the biosocial method were significantly different among home garden size classes. Average species richness determined by the bionumerical method did not differ among size classes. Both methods showed highest total observed and estimated species richness in the large home gardens, which contain many unique species. Both methods showed similar overall species composition among size classes and highest structural diversity in large home gardens. We conclude that it is important for conservation to maintain large home gardens in local mosaics, and that the biosocial and bionumerical methods are complementary. The bionumerical method allows straight comparison of population diversity within and among systems, but lacks attention for rare and unique species. The biosocial method evaluates how much diversity families custody.

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Acknowledgments

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection (SERNAPAM) of Tabasco, Mexico, financed research through grants ACU-017-09 and DK-396, and the Mexican Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) through the project “Gestión y estrategias de manejo sustentable para el desarrollo regional en la cuenca hidrográfica transfronteriza Grijalva” (Grant number FORDECYT-143303) and sabbatical Grant number CONACYT-147619. Manuel Vargas Domínguez, Wilbert Santiago Poot Pool and Daniel Antonio Poot Pool conducted field work. Isidra Pérez Ramírez determined botanic names of voucher specimens. The Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group at Wageningen University and Research in The Netherlands provided academic support and office facilities. We thank the owners of the home gardens in Tabasco, Mexico, for allowing the vegetation censuses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Agroecología, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Villahermosa a Reforma Km 15.5, Ra Guineo 2da Sección, Municipio del Centro, C.P. 86280, Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico

    Hans van der Wal

  2. Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, Gaia Building 101, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Hans van der Wal

  3. Forest Ecology and Management Group, Centre for Ecosystem Studies, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Frans Bongers

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  1. Hans van der Wal
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Correspondence to Hans van der Wal.

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van der Wal, H., Bongers, F. Biosocial and bionumerical diversity of variously sized home gardens in Tabasco, Mexico. Agroforest Syst 87, 93–107 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-012-9526-4

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