Biodiversity enrichment in oil palm plantations (EFForTS-BEE) – long-term trajectories of plant succession and yield

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The large-scale conversion of tropical lowland rainforest into landscapes dominated by monocultures of oil palm has led to significant losses in biodiversity and ecological functions. One promising approach to ecosystem restoration could be to establish tree islands in the sea of oil palm plantations. To test this contention, we set up the biodiversity enrichment experiment EFForTS-BEE by establishing 52 tree islands in a large oil palm plantation. Established in 2013, the experiment comprises islands of different sizes and different diversity levels of planted trees and was. The first years were characterized by increases in the diversity of multiple taxa and many ecosystem functions with significant effects of both experimental treatments, i.e. island size and tree diversity. In contrast to the common notion, enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem functioning have not come at the expense of agricultural productivity, i.e., yield, at the landscape scale. We hypothesize that the observed increases in multi-diversity and multi-functionality will further strengthen over time but trade-offs with yield will emerge. The objectives for the next three years include (a) the maintenance of the experiment and a core monitoring program, (b) an analysis of the long-term effects of the two experimental treatments in EFForTS-BEE (island size and tree diversity), c) the study of ecosystem trajectories, including the restoration of multiple components, and d) an extended integration of trophic processes. The proposed work will be done in close collaboration with partner projects addressing ecological food webs, landscape-level analyses, climate regulation, economics and policies, and using agent-based modelling. EFForTS-BEE will enable and foster an evidence-based contribution to the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.