Recent studies show that soil animal count data are characterized by the presence of excess zeros and overdispersion, which violate the assumptions of standard statistical tests. Despite this, analyses have consisted of mainly non-parametric tests and log-normal least square regression (i.e. ANOVA). Failure to accommodate zero inflation in count data can result in biased estimation of ecologica...

Successful extension of agroforestry to areas of the semi-arid tropics where deep reserves of water exist requires that the tree species be complementary to the associated crops in their use of water within the crop rooting zone. However, it is difficult to identify trees suitable for dryland agroforestry because most existing techniques for determining water uptake by roots cannot distinguish ...

BACKGROUND Documenting the spectrum of ecosystem management, the roles of forestry and agricultural biodiversity, TEK, and human culture for food sovereignty, are all priority challenges for contemporary science and society. Ethnoagroforestry is a research approach that provides a theoretical framework integrating socio-ecological disciplines and TEK. We analyze in this study general types of A...

BACKGROUND TEK, ecological and economic aspects of columnar cacti were studied in the Tehuacán Valley, Mexico to design sustainable regimes of fruit harvest. We analysed the amounts of edible fruit, seeds and flowers produced per hectare of cardonal, jiotillal and tetechera forests, their economic value and actual extraction rates, hypothesizing that the economic benefits of these NTFP would po...

This paper introduces the Special Issue “Systematic Approach to Agroforestry Policies and Practices in Asia”. contains eleven papers on agroforestry at national, regional, global levels. These discuss research trends; dominant services functions of agroforestry; multiple case studies from Asian countries including Nepal, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste; benefits income gene...

Currently, the environmental services concept and its assessment seems the most appropriate approach to estimate, evaluate, conserve and in general make environmental use sustainable. The most well known environmental services are water purification and carbon sequestration. However, there are knowledge gaps. In the case of biodiversity, for example, evaluation has mostly been based on quantita...

For decades it has been assumed that the largest vessels are generally found in roots and that vessel size and corresponding sapwood area-specific hydraulic conductivity are acropetally decreasing toward the distal twigs. However, recent studies from the perhumid tropics revealed a hump-shaped vessel size distribution. Worldwide tropical perhumid forests are extensively replaced by agroforestry...

The indigenous agroforestry system on Pohnpei was studied using circular plots laid out in transect across 57 randomly-selected farms. Data were collected on species and cultivar presence, size, density, frequency, as well as soil type, slope, aspect, and other related information. Through farmer interviews, farm family demographic data was also recorded. Seasonality of major crops was observed...

The productivity of tropical agricultural commodities is affected by the health of the ecosystem. Shade tolerant crops such as coffee and cocoa benefit from environmental services provided by forested landscapes, enabling landscape design that meets biodiversity conservation and economic needs. What can motivate farmers to apply and maintain such landscape approaches? Rather than rely on a prol...