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Relationships of overstory trees and shrubs with forage species portray ecosystem service interactions in smallholder fallows

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Abstract

Interactions among ecosystem services are increasingly perceived as important to ecosystem service delivery. Synergies and trade-offs among ecosystem services arise through direct ecological interactions or indirectly through correlated responses to other factors. To investigate whether and how interactions of overstory trees and shrubs with livestock forage species growing beneath generate ecosystem service interactions, overstory and forage species were examined in smallholder fallows in western Kenya. In 18 grazed and 21 improved fallows, we estimated biomass and quantified soil properties. We assessed whether the overstory reduces forage biomass and quality through competition, and whether overstory niche complementarity ameliorates competition or enhances facilitation. In improved fallows, forage biomass declined with overstory biomass, indicating competition and a wood-forage trade-off. In grazed fallows, biomass of higher quality forage species increased with overstory biomass, indicating a synergy, likely indirect. Niche complementarity, quantified as taxonomic and functional diversity, did not appear influential. Forage quality was not associated with overstory characteristics, but declined with grazing intensity. The contrasting relationships between overstory and forage species among fallow types appear ultimately attributable to the presence and intensity of grazing and the dense overstory in improved fallows.

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Abbreviations

CP:

Crude protein

ESP:

Ecosystem service provider

FD:

Functional diversity

NIRS:

Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

SOC:

Soil organic carbon

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Acknowledgments

This publication is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under the terms of the TransLinks Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement No. EPP-A-00-06-00014-00 to The Wildlife Conservation Society. TransLinks is a partnership of The Wildlife Conservation Society, The Earth Institute, EnterpriseWorks/VITA, Forest Trends and The Land Tenure Center. The contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. The authors thank Patrick Mutuo and the Millennium Villages Project for facilitating completion of the research, Victor Omollo, Chris Ekise, Herine Okoth, Steve Okulo, Carlos Onyalo, and George Baison for field assistance, and Keith Shepherd and Elvis Weullow of ICRAF-Nairobi for assistance with soil analyses. Thanks are also due to Cheryl Palm and Maria Uriarte for helpful suggestions and comments on earlier drafts.

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  1. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, 10th Floor Schermerhorn Extension, 1200 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Jason Sircely & Shahid Naeem

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  1. Jason Sircely
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Correspondence to Jason Sircely.

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Sircely, J., Naeem, S. Relationships of overstory trees and shrubs with forage species portray ecosystem service interactions in smallholder fallows. Agroforest Syst 87, 451–464 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-012-9566-9

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