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Agroforestry orchards support greater butterfly diversity than monoculture plantations in the tropics

  • Conservation ecology – original research
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Abstract

Large-scale deforestation in the tropics, triggered by logging and subsequent agricultural monoculture has a significant adverse impact on biodiversity due to habitat degradation. Here, we measured the diversity of butterfly species in three agricultural landscapes, agroforestry orchards, oil palm, and rubber tree plantations. Butterfly species were counted at 127 sampling points over the course of a year using the point count method. We found that agroforestry orchards supported a greater number of butterfly species (74 species) compared to rubber tree (61 species) and oil palm plantations (54 species) which were dominated by generalist (73%) followed by forest specialists (27%). We found no significant difference of butterfly species composition between agroforestry orchards and rubber tree plantation, with both habitats associated with more butterfly species compared to oil palm plantations. This indicates butterflies were able to persist better in certain agricultural landscapes. GLMMs suggested that tree height, undergrowth coverage and height, and elevation determined butterfly diversity. Butterfly species richness was also influenced by season and landscape-level variables such as proximity to forest, mean NDVI, and habitat. Understanding the factors that contributed to butterfly species richness in an agroecosystem, stakeholders should consider management practices to improve biodiversity conservation such as ground vegetation management and retaining adjacent forest areas to enhance butterfly species richness. Furthermore, our findings suggest that agroforestry system should be considered to enhance biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

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Data availability

Data generated from this study will be provided upon reasonable request by the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous plantation company and smallholders in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan, for granting permission to conduct the research on their farms. We also would like to express our gratitude to Rutger Sterenborg, Mizan Mat Nawi, Syafiq Salehhuddin, Arief Aiman Arman, Nuradilah Denan, Ku Noor Khalidah Ku Halim, Nuurfarahani Zulkifli, Sharifah Nur Atikah, and Kamaliah Eddy for their assistance during the fieldwork.

Funding

This research was funded by Universiti Putra Malaysia under Putra Young Initiative Gant (IPM) (Project No: 9637800).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forestry Science and Biodiversity, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Wan Mamat Wan Zaki, Muhammad Syafiq Yahya, Ahmad R. Norhisham, Ruzana Sanusi & Badrul Azhar

  2. Laboratory of Bioresource Management, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Ahmad R. Norhisham & Ruzana Sanusi

  3. Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 9001, 6880 GB, Velp, The Netherlands

    Peter J. van der Meer

  4. Biodiversity Unit, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Badrul Azhar

  5. School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

    Badrul Azhar

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Contributions

W.Z.W.M., M.S.Y., A.R.N., R.Z., P.J.v.d.M., and B.A. conceived the ideas, designed methodology, and administered the research; W.Z.W.M. collected the data in the field and identified the samples, W.Z.W.M., M.S.Y. and B.A. analyzed the data, and drew the figures; W.Z.W.M., M.S.Y., A.R.N., R.Z., P.J.v.d.M., and B.A. led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the manuscript and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Badrul Azhar.

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The authors have no relevant competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Communicated by Sebastian Seibold.

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Wan Zaki, W.M., Yahya, M.S., Norhisham, A.R. et al. Agroforestry orchards support greater butterfly diversity than monoculture plantations in the tropics. Oecologia 201, 863–875 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05348-3

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