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Home garden agrobiodiversity in cultural landscapes in the tropical lowlands of Tabasco, México

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Abstract

We studied whether agrobiodiversity in home gardens reflects the cultural landscapes that embed them. We compared floristic composition, biomass and cover of trees in home gardens between the cultural landscapes on mountain slopes (MSL), small hills (SHL), and floodplains (FPL) in a segment of the Grijalva–Usumacinta watershed in the tropical lowlands of Tabasco, Mexico. We characterized the cultural landscapes based on information obtained through questionnaires, identified species and measured tree height and diameter at breast height in random samples of home gardens from two localities in each case. The cultural landscapes showed distinct land use combinations: MSL comprised subsistence agriculture, pasturelands and forests; SHL pasturelands, some secondary vegetation and industrial agriculture fields; and FPL mainly industrial agriculture fields and pasturelands. Total species richness was greater in MSL than in SHL and FPL. Mean species richness was greater in MSL and SHL (22.4 and 15.8 respectively) than in FPL (7.2), as was the mean number of individuals per home garden (98.2, 94.1 and 20.4. Dominant species in home gardens in FPL and SHL included particular secondary species for each landscape, whereas single or double occurrences of mature forest species were distinctive of home gardens in MSL. Mean biomass was greater in MSL than in SHL and FPL (37.1, 28.2 and 23.7 Mg C ha−1), as was tree cover (1.06, 0.95 and 0.76 m2/m2). We conclude that agrobiodiversity varies considerably among cultural landscapes and recommend the design of specific policies to enhance its conservation in each of them.

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Acknowledgements

The National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) (Grant Nos 290936 and 353322) of Mexico supports the doctorate scholarship of the first author. CONACYT also funded a short stay at the University of Stanford, California, where Dr. Rodolfo Dirzo-Minjares provided useful comments on an early draft. Fieldwork was funded through the home garden project at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Tabasco, and through the project “Sustainability Challenges in the Usumacinta watershed in Tabasco: ecosystems, climate change and societal response”, financed by Fondos Mixtos of the government of Tabasco and CONACYT (Grant TAB-2012-C28-194316). Andrea Serrano-Ysunza, Javier Isidro-Hernández and Pedro Santiago-Montejo provided invaluable assistance during fieldwork.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico

    Alejandro Alcudia-Aguilar

  2. Agroecology Group, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carr. A Reforma km 15.5 s.n. Ra Guineo Segunda Sección, Centro, 86280, Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico

    Hans van der Wal & Pablo Martínez-Zurimendi

  3. Environmental Sciences Laboratory, Agrobiology Faculty, Autonomous University of Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico

    Juan Suárez-Sánchez

  4. Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain

    Pablo Martínez-Zurimendi

  5. Sustainable Management of Watersheds and Coastal Areas, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico

    María Mercedes Castillo-Uzcanga

Authors
  1. Alejandro Alcudia-Aguilar
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  2. Hans van der Wal
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  3. Juan Suárez-Sánchez
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  4. Pablo Martínez-Zurimendi
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  5. María Mercedes Castillo-Uzcanga
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Correspondence to Hans van der Wal.

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Alcudia-Aguilar, A., van der Wal, H., Suárez-Sánchez, J. et al. Home garden agrobiodiversity in cultural landscapes in the tropical lowlands of Tabasco, México. Agroforest Syst 92, 1329–1339 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-017-0078-5

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